New graduate BME curriculum at the University of Technology Brno

Abstract

In frame of a study reform, aiming at two-stage study system (BSc, MSc), a new two-year curriculum has been developed for students of biomedical engineering, including also basics of ecological engineering. This orientation becomes now an independent study branch in the MSc stage of study at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, UT Brno. The contribution describes, in a level of detail, the concept of the curriculum, which seems to be a reasonable compromise under given constrains. Keywords -Biomedical engineering, learning, tuition, curriculum of study, ecology 1 I. INTRODUCTIONStudy of biomedical engineering has a long tradition at the University of Technology Brno. It started already in 1967 as the so-called medical electronics branch of either electronic or control engineering. In the mentioned year, the Department of Medical Electronics was established, the predecessor of today's Department of Biomedical Engineering. This tradition is the oldest in the former Czechoslovakia (thus even in today's Czechia). Naturally, the concept of study has undergone many changes since then. Originally, medical electronics meant just emphasised orientation towards medical equipment in frame of either of the mentioned study frames; several optional specialised courses were offered. Later, it has been recognised, that certain background in biophysics and basic medical knowledge is also necessary. There was a tendency towards a specialised independent branch of study, but it started only shortly before 1989 and never reached maturity.From today's point of view, the most important change of the concept appeared after the political change in 1989. In 1990, the scope of interest of the Department was broadened, as reflected in the change of its name to Dept. of Biomedical Engineering. At that time, the system of study at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science was reformed so that many rather narrow specialisations were substituted by a few more generic branches, of which three were important for biomedical engineering orientation: electronics and communication, control and measurement and computer science. The main idea was to produce broadly This project has been partly supported by the grant CEZ MSM 262200011 of the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic.oriented graduates, with solid theoretical background and ability to adapt to changing social environment during their professional life. In this frame, the Department of Biomedical Engineering offered a block of optional courses, after the passing of which the student was reasonably oriented in biomedical engineering without loosing his general orientation. This way, the graduates were still engineers (MSc) of the broad orientation of electronics, measurement or computing (thus not limited to being employed only in the BME area) but with sufficient specialised knowledge and abilities to work in a hospital, a biomedical research or in design and production of biomedical equipment. The graduates, successfully finishing certain...