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Graduate Tracks

Biomechanics of Organs, Tissues, and Cells

Track Coordinator:

This graduate track has a specific menu of courses to satisfy the 9-credit "Track Courses" requirement for the Research M.S., Ph.D., or M.D./Ph.D. This curriculum is developed jointly with faculty from CMU

At the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University there are broad and extensive research activities in Biomechanics. Application areas include musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, urological, ergonomic, occupational, and rehabilitation. Our educational goal is to expand on the fundamental knowledge gained at the undergraduate level of both mechanics and the biological sciences, and demonstrate how they can be applied to solve real biomedical problems. We believe that biomechanics concentration students should be exposed to all areas of biomechanics, and not just their area of specialty. Further, since many areas of biomechanics share similar background material, our courses should present fundamental material first, followed by application examples to give the students a feel for "theory and application" in biomechanics. The fundamental philosophy of the approach is multi-scale, wherein Biomechanics is taught as a means to solve biomedical problems, regardless of problem scale (cell to whole body). Below are listed the current biomechanics track courses.

Required courses

Choose 3 of the following

  • BIOENG 2035 - Biomechanical Modeling of Movement
  • BIOENG [TBD] - Musculo-skeletal Biomechanics
  • BIOENG 2072 - Functional Tissue Engineering
  • ME 759 (CMU) - Cell Mechanics

Other recommended BIOE course options

  • CEN 12775 (CMU) - Finite Elements in Mechanics
  • MATH 2950 - Methods in Applied Math
  • MATH 2960 - Computational Fluid Mechanics
  • MATH 3072 - The Finite Element Method
  • MATH 3075 - Parallel Finite Element Method
  • MATH 3370 - Computational Models in Neurobiology
  • ME 2004 - Elasticity
  • ME 2022 - Applied Solid Mechanics
  • ME 2027 - Advanced Dynamics
  • ME 2045 - Linear Control Systems
  • ME 2047 - Finite Element Analysis
  • ME 2074 - Advanced Fluid Dynamics I
  • ME 2080 - Introduction to MEMS
  • ME 3011 - Non-linear Elasticity

T32 BiRM Training Grant

Dr. Michael Sacks is the director the T32 Biomechanics in Regenerative Medicine (BiRM) training program. For more information on this program, see the BiRM home page.

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