Welcome to the Coulter Department — we’re glad you’re interested in our program.
Biomedical Engineering is an evolving field that has challenged the historical disciplinary barriers between the life sciences and engineering. While BME research activities frequently result in clinical therapies and medical treatments, the field remains intimately tied to the engineering disciplines.
Sometimes we like to say the biomedical engineering is akin to the “liberal arts of science and technology” in an effort to convey the breadth of areas and subjects our students will explore as they move through the major. Graduates of the Coulter Department have pursued careers as diverse as medicine, dentistry, public health, hospital administration, healthcare IT, government service at regulatory agencies like the FDA, healthcare consulting, medical field engineering, device design, patent law, technology startups, entrepreneurship, designing shoes for Nike, and public service through Teach for America. Therefore, it should be no surprise that, as a field with virtually no textbooks to date, biomedical engineering education poses special challenges — and opportunities.
The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering is a single department that combines the world-class resources of the Georgia Tech College of Engineering and the Emory University School of Medicine.
The Coulter Department offers multiple undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The undergraduate and master’s programs are administered by Georgia Tech. Students apply for admission to these programs through Georgia Tech, attend classes at Georgia Tech, and are awarded their degrees from Georgia Tech.
Students in the Georgia Tech and Emory University biomedical engineering Ph.D. program apply for admission through Georgia Tech, attend classes at both Georgia Tech and Emory University, and receive their degrees from both universities. Students in the Georgia Tech, Emory University, and Peking University biomedical engineering Ph.D. program apply for admission through either Georgia Tech or Peking University, and they attend classes at and receive their degrees from all three universities.
All students, regardless of the degree they are pursuing, have the opportunity to conduct research at any of our three campuses.
The undergraduate biomedical engineering program is administered by Georgia Tech. Students apply for admission to the program through Georgia Tech, attend classes only at Georgia Tech, and are awarded their degrees from Georgia Tech.
Professor Ajit Yoganathan invented the science of prosthetic heart valve engineering and has tested every heart valve design on the market — including the kind implanted in Mick Jagger's heart in 2019.
“The Cardiovascular Fluid Mechanics Laboratory focuses on understanding complex cardiovascular problems using fundamental engineering and science. The main objective of my lab is to provide answers to lifesaving clinical questions using engineering approaches.” – Ajit Yoganathan.