June 10, 2014

College of Engineering bestows its first biomedical engineering bachelor's degrees at May 2014 commencement ceremonies

DETROIT (June 10, 2014) -  During Wayne State's May 2014 commencement ceremonies, the College of Engineering had additional reason to celebrate, as it bestowed its first biomedical engineering (BME) bachelor's degrees.

In fall 2010, the College of Engineering welcomed its first cohort of undergraduate biomedical engineering students. The undergraduate degree program completed the complement of a full BME program -- from freshman to Ph.D. -- initiated in 1998, when the first graduate students began coursework in biomedical engineering. The department, independently established in 2002, builds on the college's 75 years of pioneering work in bioengineering research.

Nineteen students completed the program's first semester in 2010. Fifteen of those students graduated in May 2014, and two more will graduate in August 2014. The final student will earn a bachelor's in biomedical engineering and a bachelor's in mechanical engineering in May 2015.  

Some of the graduates will go on to attend medical school, while others will attend graduate school at Wayne State, University of Michigan, University of California - Berkeley, and Clemson University. Others will soon begin working at General Motors, Chrysler and in the Wayne State Department of Neuroscience.

"My absolute favorite part of the BME program that no other engineering program has to offer is the cohort aspect of it," says Nigil Valikodath, who will join the University of California -Berkeley's Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership in the fall for their accelerated master of engineering program. He will specialize in product design within their Department of Mechanical Engineering. "The same group of us was together for four years and we've really made lifetime friendships through that. All the late nights studying, registering or just hanging out together. It was an awesome experience that really made the biomedical engineering program unique."

Wayne State University is a premier urban research institution of higher education offering 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students. For more information about engineering at Wayne State University, visit engineering.wayne.edu.

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