BioMEMS Summer Bioengineering Institute: Integrating engineering and biology education through BioMEMS design, fabrication, and test

The Department of Biomedical Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) developed a BioMEMS Summer Bioengineering Institute. The focus on BioMEMS was supported by both didactic and research activities planned for the students. The research experience consisted on (i) designing and (Ii) fabricating a BioMEMS device in the Class-10 Cleanroom of the Microelectronics Facility at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and finally (iii) testing their device in a host biomedical research lab either in the University Heights (Newark, NJ) academic community, the metropolitan New York community (an easy commute), or at their home university. The students' research experience was complemented by four formal courses: three on biomedical engineering (bioelectrical signals, physiologic modeling, and imaging; biomechanics, tissue engineering, and biomaterials; biochemistry and cell biology from an engineering point of view) and a fourth one on BioMEMS.