History

Evolution of the Georgia Tech Bioengineering Program

Georgia Institute of Technology's bioengineering research and its interdisciplinary alliances in engineering and science have strategically positioned the Institute to provide one of the best bioengineering programs in the country. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, the Institute is in a major center for biomedical technology and research. The national Centers for Disease Prevention and Control and the American Cancer Society are headquartered here, and Atlanta's Morehouse College and Emory University are major medical institutions. The state of Georgia, through the Georgia Research Alliance, is investing a substantial stake in bioengineering with two of its three funding initiatives: biotechnology and telecommunications (Telemedicine).

In 1985, the bioengineering activities at Georgia Tech were formalized with the creation of the Bioengineering Center. In 1987, Georgia Tech and Emory University collaborated to form the Emory-Georgia Tech Biomedical Technology Center with the goal of encouraging research and academic programs in biomedical engineering. Five years later, Georgia Tech established another collaborative research program with the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.

In March 1993, Georgia Tech's Bioengineering Center was one of three in the nation to receive a Whitaker Foundation Biomedical Engineering Program Development Grant. Four months later, Georgia Tech created the Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience to coordinate all life-science related educational and research activities. This new institute answers national and industry demands as well as the research interests of particularly strong Tech graduate students who, over the past 10 years, have gravitated toward the bioengineering field.

Visit the IBB web site.

Georgia Tech's bioengineering graduate degree programs combine advanced courses in engineering specialties, life sciences, and bioengineering with training in biomedical research. The M.S. in Bioengineering, offered at Tech since fall 1992, is coordinated by the College of Engineering in conjunction with the Bioengineering Center and the Colleges of Computing and Sciences. The Ph.D. program, available in fall of 1994, will also draw primarily on the resources of the Institute's Colleges of Engineering, Computing, and Sciences.

The three major areas of research conducted through the Bioengineering Center are: biomechanics and tissue engineering; bioinstrumentation and medical imaging; and medical informatics. These areas of research are funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Whitaker Foundation, and the biomedical industry at approximately $3.5 million per year.

Bioengineering Graduate Program Coordinators

Faculty