Careers in Health
Engineers in the biomedical field seek to address challenges related to health such asincluding pathophysiology, aging-related ailments, injury, motion, and more. Engineers who study advanced engineering in the health topic area on tackle problems in biomechanics, medical device design, drug development, tissue engineering, and biomaterialsore.
HCE Courses
The HCE program offers a variety of coursework in the health area. These courses include:
- Advanced Foundations technical electives
- ENGR3110 and ENGR3210 [4 credits] – Materials & Biomaterials (Salifu)
- ENGR 3112 [3] – Thermodynamics (Brace)
- ENGR 3113 [1] – Thermodynamics Laboratory (Brace)
- ENGR3114 [3 credits] - Bioprocess Engineering (Hoar)
- Technical electives
- ENGR4222 [4 credits] – Engineering Principles in Physiology (Perreault)
- ENGR4230 [4 credits] – Biomechanics (Gaudette)
- ENGR4320 [3 credits] – Biomedical Imaging (Ranger)
- ENGR4410 [3 credits] – Engineering for Sustainable Development (Conroy)
Job Titles
Below is a list of potential job titles related to careers in health, showcasing the diverse career paths available in the field. Your job competitiveness depends not only on the degree earned but also on your skills, hands-on experience, and ability to effectively communicate biological/medical concepts to diverse audiences. Students should pursue as many project experiences as possible through coursework, research, independent studies, or internships, to help deepen their knowledge in their areas of interest.
Medical Device Engineer
Biomechanical Engineering
Rehabilitation Engineer
Quality Assurance Engineering (Medical Products)
Clinical Engineer (Hospital Systems)
Validation Engineer
Human Factors Engineer
Consumer Safety Officer (United States Food & Drug Administration)
Physician
Surgeon
Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant
Biomedical/Life Sciences Consultant
Patent Examiner
Patent Lawyer
Technology Transfer Specialist
Clinical Trial Manager
Biomedical Data Scientist
Health Informatics Engineer
Healthcare Systems Engineer
Computational Biologist
Bioprocess Engineer
Tissue/Biomaterials Engineer
Engineering Project Manager
Biomedical Engineering
Bioengineer
Tissue Engineer
Key Terms, Professional Organizations, and Companies
When you’re first looking for a job or internship in the health space, it can be challenging to know where to start. The columns below highlight some of the key terms you can use when searching for opportunities, professional associations, and companies to start your search and networking. Note that professional opportunities for engineers in health span private industry (e.g. engineering firms like the companies listed below), public organizations (municipalities and federal government), and non-profit organizations.
- Biomedical engineering
- Medical device
- Biomedical research
- Biomaterials
- Biomechanics
- Biotechnology
- Clinical engineering
- Tissue engineering
- Regulatory affairs engineering
- Bioinformatics
- Health informatics
- Health technology
- Neuroengineering
- Orthopedics
- Biostatistics
- Biomedical data science
- Chemical engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Mechanical engineering
- Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning
- Pharmaceutical
- Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
- American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
- IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS)
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) - Bioengineering Division
- Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
- Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
- Municipal/city/town offices
- National Labs (sometimes associated with grad school)
- Boston Scientific
- Medtronic
- Hospitals
- Lanza
- GE
- Phillips
- J&J
- Smith & Nephew
- AstraZeneca
- Pfizer
- Moderna
- Siemens
- Abbott Labs
- Stryker
- Gore
- Nova Biomedical
- Instrumental Labs
- Intuitive Surgical
- Becton Dickinson
- Thermo Fisher
- Dephy
- PathAI
- Verily
- Research labs
References