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AIMBE’s Academic Council: Training Grounds for Future Innovators
AIMBE’s Academic Council includes representatives of the vast majority of the 110 U.S. universities offering educational programs at the graduate or undergraduate level that merge biological and engineering sciences. Whether the program is identified as “biological engineering,” “bioengineering,” “biomedical engineering” or by another name, the common thread is a focus on developing and applying new knowledge about biology and engineering in ways that benefit humankind – in fields ranging from medicine to agriculture and beyond.
Department chairs generally serve as the schools’ representatives to the Council and many of those individuals also are members of the AIMBE College of Fellows.
The Council’s member institutions play critical roles in the field not only by preparing young people for their careers (The National Academy of Engineering estimates that there already are 32,000 bioengineers working in various areas of health technology) but also by serving as centers for research that uncovers new knowledge and develops breakthrough drugs and devices.
“These are balmy days for biomedical engineering, says Dr. Vincent Turitto, Director of the Pritzker Institute for Biomedical Science and Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology. “The future application of engineering and science technology to medicine is likely to change the diagnosis, treatment and cure of diseases that have plagued mankind in a similar fashion that engineering and science have transformed our society over the past century.”
Academic institutions play a key role in ‘translational research’ – the movement of laboratory discoveries to end users, particularly important in making biomedical engineering innovations integral to the healthcare system. “Biomedical engineers must assume the responsibility to rapidly move discoveries from the laboratory to end users – both patients and caretakers – in the clinic or in the home,” says Banu Onaral, 2005-2006 Academic Council Chair, who is H. H. Sun Professor and Director of the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel University “To do this, rising generations of biomedical engineers must be competent in engineering and life sciences as well as being versed in product innovation, design and development, technology commercialization, business development and entrepreneurship.”
The earliest U.S. academic programs in bioengineering were launched more than a half century ago. During the 1960s and 1970s, the number of university programs grew steadily, partly in response to NIH support and NSF funding in the areas of basic science and interdisciplinary sciences. The first undergraduate programs were initiated in the mid-1960s.
In 1992, The Whitaker Foundation initiated a large grant program designed to help institutions establish or develop biomedical engineering departments or programs. This led to the infusion of considerable amounts of funding for academic departments in the field and spawned numerous new programs.
Over the years, universities with bioengineering engineering programs have received the largest part of the funding from NIH, with important contributions from NSF. Such programs also have become more resourceful in seeking support from local business and local/regional foundations, as well as from the federal Small Business Administration and the Defense and Energy departments.
Today, bioengineering programs are undergoing tremendous change, as the complexity of medical and biological engineering grows each year and as the institutions work to secure ever-more-precious funding.
The student bodies of Academic Council institutions are themselves evolving, as an increasing number of women enter the field; at many schools today, more than half of the undergraduate and graduate bioengineering students are female. In the coming years, the Academic Council will be an integral part of AIMBE’s efforts to encourage the continued movement of women into the field and to recognize their growing contributions to the rapid advancement of medical and biological technologies.
The Academic Council meets each winter at AIMBE’s Annual Event and at another scientific meeting during the year. Participants consider issues ranging from curricular standards and accreditation to employment of graduates and funding for both graduate and undergraduate study.
According to its former Chair, Robert A. Linsenmeier, Ph.D., a professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Northwestern University, “The Academic Council is the only organization in the country that brings bioengineering educators together. It serves a formal role of raising issues of common interest and also provides a way for educators from different programs to get to know each other personally.”
