Bioengineering Overview
Finding the cure with Bioengineering!
How can we use technology to solve medical problems? Bioengineers work every day to answer that big question. Whether it be engineering life-saving vaccines, building machines like MRIs, or writing code to analyze the human genome, the main goal bioengineers have is to use their skills to help patients.
Prompts to ask students to discuss and introduce the topic:
- What is bioengineering/biomedical engineering in your mind?
- Where do you think bioengineers work? What do they do?
- Have you watched the Paralympics?
- What medical equipment have you seen at home?
- How do vaccines work? Who makes them?
- Have you ever broken a bone? Gotten an X-ray?
Videos to introduce Bioengineering to students:
- Think that bioengineers can only work in the hospital? Check out the awesome NASA bioscience department, where bioengineers help astronauts grow food, fight disease, and stay safe in space!
- Grainger Bioengineering has made incredible contributions to healthcare technology over the years. Learn more about this exciting, interdisciplinary field the Study Bioengineering at The Grainger College of Engineering video.
- At-home health monitoring is super important for early diagnosis and for home-bound patients. UIUC alumni Todd Coleman is the inventor of biosensors as thin as skin that address that need. Watch a short video from the University of Michigan ECE with Todd Coleman on Making Measuring Health Simpler.
Return to the STEM Activity Library to access the bioengineering engineering activities and other engineering majors.