Biomedical Engineering Concentration

You’re eager to join the medical arena, but sticking people with needles or performing operations aren’t exactly your thing. Here’s some good news: Biomedical engineering lives at the intersection of engineering and healthcare, and the solutions developed in this field can prolong and save lives. What role will you play in this high-impact, life-changing profession?

Biomedical engineers use engineering ingenuity to solve medical and health-related problems. Often they do research, in tandem with scientists, to develop and evaluate things such as artificial joints and organs, prostheses, instrumentation, medical information systems, and health management and care delivery systems. If this sounds intriguing, the biomedical engineering concentration within our engineering major may be right for you.

Curious about our track record? Get this: 100 percent of our engineering graduates have a job or are in graduate school within the first six months after graduation.

One Concentration, Two Tracks

At George Fox, you have the option of two biomedical engineering tracks:

Develop a Prosthetic Limb … or an Artificial Heart Valve

The biomedical engineering field covers a broad spectrum, combining aspects of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science, chemistry, mathematics, human biology, and computer science and engineering to improve human health, whether it be to develop an advanced prosthetic limb, an artificial heart valve, or make a breakthrough in identifying proteins within cells.

You could also specialize in pharmaceutical delivery systems and tissue engineering, or develop biomechanical sports equipment. Or, you may design surgical instruments, medical imaging systems, or create devices such as heart pacemakers or those used to automate insulin injections.

Read more about what biomedical engineers do and the career possibilities that await!

Why Study Biomedical Engineering at George Fox?

engineering students studying together in the Maker Hub

What Will I Study?

As a biomedical engineering student, you will learn:

  • Medical device design from design concept to market
  • How to build devices that measure temperature, pressure, and other biosignals
  • The properties and behaviors of biomaterials and how to use them in medicine and healthcare
  • How to model the motion of the human body mathematically
  • How to apply biotransport phenomena for developing artificial tissue and medical devices
  • A human-centered approach to engineering design 
  • How to integrate engineering with your faith 

Madelynne Pirkl

In the four years I was at Fox I became a much more confident, independent and well-rounded human being, while also developing the training and knowledge that I need to be a great engineer.

What’s after George Fox

Job growth for engineers is expected to rise, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, due to an infrastructure that continues to age (civil engineering), the ever-increasing demand for highly skilled computer scientists, and the ability of electrical and mechanical engineers to develop and apply new technologies. “Job prospects may be best for those who stay abreast of the most recent advances in technology,” notes the BLS.

  • Electrical Failure Analysis Engineer, Intel
  • Electrical Engineer, Boeing
  • Embedded Software Design Engineer, Tektronix
  • Semiconductor Design Engineer, Teradyne
  • Reliability Engineer, Lattice Semiconductor
  • Various engineering positions, Daimler Trucks North America
  • Mechanical Engineer, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
  • Applications Engineer, MCAD Technologies
  • Structural and Payload Engineer, Boeing
  • Development Engineer, Contech Engineered Solutions
  • Project Engineer, Anderson Construction
  • Civil Design Engineer, KPFF Consulting Engineers
  • MIT (Mechanical Engineering)
  • Cal Poly (Electrical Engineering)
  • Johns Hopkins University (Biomedical Engineering)
  • Purdue University (Mechanical Engineering, Astronautics Engineering)
  • USC (Astronautical Engineering)
  • Virginia Tech (Biomedical Engineering)
  • CU Boulder (Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering)
  • Wake Forest (Biomedical Engineering)
  • Montana State University (Mechanical Engineering)
  • UC San Diego
  • University of Oregon (Sports Product Design)
  • Oregon State University (Electrical/Computer Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering)
  • University of Washington (Electrical/Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering)
  • University of Georgia (Electrical Engineering)
  • Boise State University (Electrical Engineering)
  • Portland State University (Electrical Engineering)
  • University of Rochester (Electrical Engineering)
  • Georgia Institute of Technology (Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering)
  • Michigan Tech (Mechanical Engineering)
  • Teradyne, Portland
  • CUI, Portland
  • Intel, Beaverton, Oregon
  • Boeing, Seattle, Washington
  • Lattice Semiconductor, Portland
  • HP, Boise, Idaho
  • 3D Systems, Wilsonville, Oregon
  • Tektronix, Beaverton, Oregon
  • Climax, Newberg, Oregon
  • Cascade Steel, McMinnville, Oregon
  • Biotronik, Beaverton, Oregon
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Creating Biomedical, Virtual-reality, Servant Engineers

The Oregon Bioscience Association interviewed Robert Harder, dean of the College of Engineering, and profiled our biomedical engineering program, identifying it as "one of the area's most comprehensive academic biomedical engineering programs."

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