BIOMEG:PHD - Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering
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Admissions Requirements for the PhD in Biomedical Engineering
A prospective student must meet all admission requirements stipulated in the University’s Graduate Policies and Procedures. In addition, the requirements for admission to the doctoral program in Biomedical Engineering are stated as follows:
(1) A student seeking admission to the doctoral program must have a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering, or other closely related field from an accredited institution.
(2) An overall GPA of at least 3.0/4.0 or a GPA of at least a 3.0/4.0 in the last 60 credits of the applicant’s Bachelor’s degree and a GPA of at least 3.3/4.0 in the applicant’s Master’s degree are required.
(3) Three letters of recommendation.
(4) A statement of research interests and goals.
(5) International graduate student applicants whose native language is not English are required to submit a score for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). A total score of 80 on the iBT TOEFL or 6.5 overall on the IELTS is required.
The Graduate Admission Committee will examine credentials of all applicants. Applicants who have not satisfied the above will be evaluated for probationary or waiver admission.
Credit Requirements
The PhD program requires a total of 75 credit hours beyond the BS degree. These credits are comprised of a minimum of 27 hours of coursework and a minimum of 15 hours of dissertation.
Applicants having a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering or closely related field from an accredited institution are given a maximum of 30 transferred semester hours. The graduate program committee and the academic adviser may recommend that applicants take additional courses based on their research needs and deficiencies. Applicants from science and engineering areas other than biomedical engineering will be expected to complete undergraduate courses selected to prepare them for graduate courses in their area of interest. Full admission into the graduate program requires the completion of these background courses with no grades below “C” and a grade point average of 3.0 or better.
The independent study course (course) may be taken as part of the 75 credits toward graduation. If so, a syllabus of the independent study course must be provided by the course instructor to the graduate program director before the hold on the independent study course can be removed. Doctoral students have a limit of taking course two times (6 credits maximum) towards their study plan.
Courses in this area must cover the major and minor specialty areas of the student. The three current specialty areas within biomedical engineering are:
1. Basic research in engineered tissue model Systems and related biomechanics
2. Diagnostic bioimaging and sensor systems
3. Therapeutic and reparative neurotechnology
The life science courses maybe selected from approved electives such as:
Students must demonstrate Graduate knowledge acquisition in three incremental stages in order to be awarded a PhD in Biomedical Engineering:
· Qualifying Exam
· Proposal Defense (oral and/or written)
· Final Defense (oral)
Qualifying Exam is offered twice a year: one at the end of Fall semester and the other at the end of Spring semester. Students entering the PhD with a Master’s degree have to pass the Qualifying Exam within the first year in the PhD program. Students entering the PhD with a bachelor’s degree, have to pass the Qualifying Exam within the first two years in the PhD program. In the semester prior to taking the Qualifying Exam, the student must declare an intention to take the exam and must declare a major area. In the event a student fails the Qualifying Exam, the student may retake it one more time the next time it is offered. A student who has successfully passed the Qualifying Exam and completed all the course work will be formally admitted to PhD candidacy.
The student will be required to prepare a formal dissertation proposal, and successfully defend the content of the proposal before his/her advisory committee. Immediately following the proposal defense, the student’s dissertation committee will vote to pass the proposal, to have the student resubmit the proposal within six months, or to dismiss the student from the PhD program. A student can only resubmit his/her proposal once. The dissertation committee should be comprised of at least five members, at least three of whom should be biomedical engineering graduate faculty and at least one FIU graduate faculty member must be from outside biomedical engineering.
All students in the PhD program are required to complete a dissertation under the supervision of an advisor and committee. When the dissertation research is completed, the student should schedule a final defense with the examining committee. The dissertation, with an approval cover letter from the advisor, should be given to the examining committee for review not less than four weeks before the scheduled defense. The candidate should prepare to summarize the dissertation in the manner of a technical paper using appropriate visual aids in 40 minutes or less. Following the presentation, the candidate will answer questions related to the work from the audience and/or the committee. At the conclusion of the defense, the committee will agree upon the outcome pass or fail and report the results to the Graduate School. Following the exam the student will implement the committee’s suggestions for improving the draft document. Each committee member must sign the approval form in the final document. Copies of the approved dissertation must be provided to the advisor, Department, and the University Graduate School. Students should become familiar with the University Graduate School’s regulations and deadlines available online at http://gradschool.fiu.edu.
MS en Route for PhD Candidates
Doctoral candidates who have completed the requirements for the Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering and have filed the D-2 and D-3 forms that have been accepted by the University Graduate School will receive a Master of Science en route to the PhD in Biomedical Engineering, respectively.
Courses to be counted in the MS en route must have been taken at FIU. Transfer credits cannot be used for MS en route. Students must consult their Graduate Programs Director to ensure they qualify.
There are no majors associated with this program.
There are no tracks, specializations, concentrations, areas of emphasis, or other curricular offerings associated with this program.