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.