Biomedical Engineering

Date: 16.7.13
Time: 8:30
Location: Engineering School, Cornell University

Tuesday began with a lecture by Professor Hernandez regarding biomedical engineering.  Biomedical engineering works to improve the field of medicine by creating machines and materials that are more reliable or durable than their human counterparts.

Ekso Bionics walking aid
Biomaterials is an incredibly lucrative field within biomedical engineering.  Biomaterials include artificial bones, and drug delivery systems.  Other hot fields study the response of cells to certain stimuli, and mechanical properties of cells or human tissue.  This type of engineering is the future of medicine, as projects like creating artificial organs will eliminate the need for some of the more conventional medicine practices.

I have experience with biomedical engineering, as it was the topic of RoboElite's presentation during the 2010-2011 FIRST robotics season.  We built a robotic leg brace, not too dissimilar to those being built by the Ekso Bionics company.  Our brace was designed to help Dr. House, the main character from the show House.  He suffered from an infarction in his leg,
Dr. House and his cane
which forced him to limp.  Our brace stimulated the muscles in his hip, swinging his leg forward for him, eliminating his need for a cane.

Some of the subfields within biomedical engineering include clinical engineering, medical imaging, rehabilitation engineering, and orthopedic engineering.  Clinical engineering works on projects such as digitally organizing medical records and watching doctors to lessen the chance for mistakes.  The DaVinci surgical robot is a product of some clinical engineers.  The DiVinci is able to do minimally invasive surgery, reducing recovery time and scaring.  Medical imaging includes x-rays, MRIs, CT scans.  Rehabilitation engineering focuses on creating new, more efficient machines and methods for getting better.  Finally, orthopedic engineering works with bettering such things like hip replacements, prosthetics, and muscle/tendon repair.  Biomedical engineering is definitely an incredibly important field of study as it will help remediate disease and many other medical problems we face today and will face tomorrow.

The DaVinci surgical robot

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