Biomedical Engineering comes to Florida Tech
Pictured: The world’s first fully-contained artificial heart, AbioCor®, from UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
The spring semester has really been treating me well. I’m currently taking 19 credit hours (I know, it’s insane but not earth-shattering!), starting my new position as Public Relations Officer of Alpha Phi Omega, and in the process of switching majors. Now, I’ve mentioned this before in my last post from Discovery Day, that I had originally wanted to study biomedical engineering at FIT back when I first applied in 2010. Good news! Beginning in the fall of 2012, the College of Engineering will officially start enrolling biomedical engineering students! I am so excited; I couldn’t put it into words…literally.
Now that everything seems to be taking shape, both academically and socially, I’d really like to let everyone know what the life of a biomedical engineer is really all about. It just so happens that I’m taking a course called Intro to Health Professions with the wonderful Dr. Julia Grimwade. Unlike most colleges, Florida Tech allows both undergrad and graduate students to take either a free or restricted elective. This semester, I took it upon myself to take this “free elective” course to really get my mind going as to where I’d like to see myself after graduation. Under the wing of our professor, the class mostly focuses about advice on applying to grad school, passing the GRE, regarding which courses to take, and mainly choosing an ideal career path.
Newest concept of Andriod phones incorporating EKG applications
Listening to Dr. Grimwade‘s experiences and musings from her college years up to ultimately becoming an academic research scientist today, I gathered a ton of information as to who to talk to. At the moment, you can find me in the Olin Engineering Complex (OEC Building)’s student lounge perusing a great deal of internships from Stanford all the way to Harvard/MIT on my laptop. Although most college freshmen my age usually don’t think twice about getting references from multiple professors, Dr. Grimwade’s first in-class assigment has inspired me to get a head start!
To be honest, there’s not a lot to worry about if you absolutely love the field you’re in…it’s just finding that one special ingredient to formulate the perfect precipitate (my chemistry jokes are getting better from last semester if you haven’t noticed). From everything I’ve gathered on that assignment, I just happened to run into a website called the National Engineers Foundation in which they sponsor National Engineers Week every February. They have everything from Aerospace to Audio Engineering (one we don’t often hear about, haha). I suggest to anyone who is truly interested in premedical biology or human medicine to sincerely look up everything there is with this major. It is incredibly intriguing and probably the fastest growing out of all the careers under biotechnology.
For more information about Biomedical Engineering, check out the Florida Tech website or the Society of BMEs.
