Biomedical Engineering

Introduction -

Basically Biomedical engineering is application of engineering principals and skills to the medical field. Biomedical engineering is created to take advantage of problem solving and technical skills to make progress in the field of Medical field. It is considered to be very rewarding field of study at this day and age. Biomedical engineering is a interdisciplinary specialization among already-established branches of engineering and science. Most of the work in biomedical engineering consists of research and development.

Educational Requirement:  The basic qualification for becoming a Biomedical Engineer is Bachelors or Masters (P.G) degree in Biomedical Engineering. The eligibility criteria for doing master differ from country to country. In India basically you need to have Math background in Class 12^th.    

Selection: - The admission to the Biomedical Engineering course is very competitive. A person has to pass the entrance test – JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) to attain admission to the IIT. For other reputed institutions you have to succeed in AIEEE (All India Engineering/ Pharmacy /Architecture Examination). There are state level and national level examinations also with some institutions opting for their own entrance examinations. Selection is done on the basis of marks obtained in board examinations i.e. 10+2 and the marks obtained in Entrance Test.

Duration: - The B.E /B.Tech in Biomedical Engineering is a 4 year course and when the student has the bachelor’s degree in Engineering in his hand, he can proceed further for an M.E./M.Tech course which is of 2 years.

Different Branches –

Like mentioned before Biomedical Engineering is an Interdisciplinary field and it involves a mixture of science as well as many engineering branches. The major branches involved in Biomedical are Mechanical, Robotics, Tissue and pharmaceutical engineering. The Biomedical engineering sub branches are discussed briefly below.

Biotechnology and pharmaceutical – Design for Production is that branch of Production Engineering which focuses on the designing of a Product. The duty of the Production Engineers related with this field is to carry out a detailed study of the design during the development stage of the product. They discover any problem occurring in the functionality, cost or impact of a product and devise a treatment so that the final outcome is a quality product.

Biomedical Devices and optics – Robotics deals with science of flexible automation. Robots are machines which do all the work that is done by man. The job of a Robotics Engineer is to design, test and build machines that are safe, productive and reasonable to purchase and maintain. The Engineers use computers for designing and drafting. The manufacturing systems used by them are also computer aided. The Robotics Research Engineers manufacture machinery and devise new methods to manufacture the machinery within budget.

Clinical Engineering – Automation of Production Systems means that the machines perform majority of functions in place of humans like loading and unloading of parts, tool changing, repair and maintenance. The new-age automated systems consist of integrated systems that operate under computer control. The work of Automation Engineers is to design the automation and control systems, start-up assistance, programming, testing, specifications and simulation.  

Career Options –

Biomedical engineers work in various institutions they work in industry, academic institutions, hospitals and federal agencies. Biomedical engineers in their career may be involved in designing electrical circuits and computer software for medical instrumentation. The instruments that Biomedical engineering way work range from large imaging systems such as conventional x-ray and MRI, to small but valuable implantable devices, such as pacemakers. The wide ranging capabilities of biomedical engineers make them one of the hottest field with constant demand in medical field.

Salary – Biomedical Engineers being one of the rare entity and also the demand being high in biotech industry there are entitled to very good salaries. The average monthly salary of Biomedical/Biotech Engineers ranges from Rs. 15,000/- to Rs.30, 000/- depending on the company as Multinational companies always offer better salaries to start with. Biotech/ Biomedical engineers starting salary range from $55,000 to $85,000 per year for little experienced employees.

The Best Colleges for Biomedical/Biotech Engineering in India are: -  

1. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi .
2. Delhi College of Engineering
3. Jadavpur University, Kolkata
4. Anna University, Chennai (Syllabus)
5. National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
6. National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur
7. Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi
8. Birla Institute of Technology, Sindri, Jharkhand
9. National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar
10. D.Y.Patil College of Engineering, Pune

The Best Schools/Universites for Biomedical Engineering in the USA are -   

1. Georgia Institute of Technology
2. Michigan University
3. Purdue University
4. Pennsylvania State University--University Park
5. Virginia Tech
6. Texas A&M University
7. University of Arizona
8. Northwestern University
9. University of Southern California
10. University of Wisconsin—Madison

 

Top Indian Firms for Production Engineering  

1. Alembic Limited

2. BrainWave Bioinformatics Ltd.

3. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd.

4. Excel Industries Limited

5. Frost & Sullivan

6. Hi Tech Bio Laboratories

7. Ocimum Biosolutions Ltd.

8. Scigenics (India) Pvt. Ltd.

9. Shantha Biotechnics Pvt. Ltd.

10. Sisco Research Laboratories Pvt. Ltd.

11. VARDA Biotech (P) Ltd.

12. Yashraj Biotechnology Ltd.

   

Top Global Firms for Biomedical/Biotech Engineering/Sciences

1. Amgen           
2. Genzyme
3. UCB   
4. Gilead Sciences          
5. Serono
6. Biogen Idec