To train world-class biomedical engineers in next-generation healthcare technologies and prepare them to work at the frontiers of healthcare innovations in the deep-tech industry or academia, the IIT Hyderabad is starting a new B. Tech in Biomedical Engineering.
It will be the first IIT in the country to offer the programme. However, Osmania University College of Engineering in Hyderabad is one of the few colleges that offers the programme in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as of now.
The new B.Tech programme trains students to design medical devices, develop 3D imagers and microscopes, crunch mountains of healthcare data, recognize patterns in health and disease, simulate and predict the spread of epidemics mixing medical needs with engineering technologies.
B S Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad said that the curriculum is designed around four verticals – bio-imaging and sensing, bio-mechanics, bio-materials and bio-intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. “They rest on a single horizontal - core training in physiology, anatomy, systems science, mathematics, circuits, instrumentation, mechanics and algorithms. In designing this curriculum, we drew from our successful Master’s program in Biomedical Engineering, and the depth of our research and industry collaborations.”
The programme will help in bringing out indigenous medical devices of high quality that serve all sections of the country, Prof, Murthy said. “One of the unique X-factors of our program is an advanced module on biomedical product design, entrepreneurship, regulatory affairs and clinical immersion, that brings in a core product design and development focus.”
Lot of these are the result of learnings from the Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship which is being run by the Department of Biomedical Engineering.