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Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineers focus their skills on improving human health—designing technologies such as artificial organs, implantable sensors, and advanced prosthetics. At ͹Ƶ, you’ll be equipped to understand how Christian engineers have the opportunity to shape the development of these cutting-edge innovations.

A professor showing a student how the technology works

Program Overview

͹Ƶ’s biomedical engineering concentration provides students a path to apply their mathematical and biological skills to directly benefit the health and wellbeing of others. You’ll learn from faculty with years of classroom and industry experience, and you’ll train, practice, and experiment in facilities equipped with top-tier resources, including Dordt’s state-of-the-art biomechanics lab. Through hands-on learning and Christ-centered mentorship, you’ll be equipped to use your skills and passion to make a meaningful difference for God’s kingdom.

What You'll Learn

A concentration in biomedical engineering from ͹Ƶ prepares you for a future in medical technology development. Through a forward-thinking program that challenges you to grow, you’ll complete foundational engineering coursework alongside specialized classes in areas like biomechanics and tissue engineering. This unique blend equips you to design technologies that support and enhance human health, all within a Christ-centered learning environment.

What You Can Do With A Biomedical Engineering Concentration

After studying biomedical engineering at ͹Ƶ, you’ll graduate with the skills to design medical devices and therapies that improve lives. You may enter the healthcare field, working with prosthetics, artificial organs, or diagnostic technologies, or pursue a career in scientific research or entrepreneurship. No matter your path, you’ll engage in fulfilling work that solves real-world problems through innovation and creativity. And with your identity firmly rooted in Christ, your impact will be both professional and spiritual.

Biomechanist

Analyze and model human movement to improve prosthetics, rehabilitation, sports performance, and injury prevention.

Biomedical Engineer

Investigate biological systems and develop medical technologies to advance disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

Prosthetist/Orthotist

Design and fit custom devices that restore mobility and function for individuals with limb loss or physical challenges.

Career Preparation

͹Ƶ's 2024 Career Outcome Rate was 99.3%! “The entire campus is engaged in the work of discipleship,” said Amy Westra, Director of Career Development. “Providing a Christian education focused on Christ-centered renewal is owned by all faculty and staff.”

Students who choose the Biomedical Engineering concentration at ͹Ƶ complete coursework in both engineering and biology, exploring how these disciplines intersect to support human health. The curriculum spans a wide spectrum, from cellular biology to material mechanics, and from human anatomy to biomechanics, all revealing how intricately these fields are connected. Required courses include Cellular Biology, Human Anatomy, Biomaterials, Biomechanics, and Tissue Engineering. This interdisciplinary foundation equips students to design technologies that enhance the function of the human body, all within a Christ-centered framework that emphasizes service, stewardship, and innovation.

  • Dynamics: A mechanics course that examines the kinematics and kinetic analysis of particle systems and rigid bodies.
  • Mechanics of Materials: A solid mechanics course that examines the stresses, strains, and deformations that develop when various loads (tension, compression, torsion, bending, or any combination of these loads) are applied to deformable bodies. Elements of structural design are introduced using
    safety factors and failure criteria for ductile materials. The mechanics design laboratory provides an introduction to experimental methods, hands-on experience applying and using strain gages and investigating beam loading, and an introduction to finite-element analysis (FEA) software.
  • Fluid Mechanics: A comprehensive, introductory course in fluid mechanics covering: hydrostatics; control volume approach to the continuity, momentum, and energy equations; dimensional analysis, similitude, and modeling; introductory boundary layer theory; fluid drag and lift; flow through conduits, pumps and compressors; and hydraulics and open channel flow. All students participate in team design projects involving design of water supply, irrigation, air handling system, or other complex fluid dynamics system.
  • Biomechanics: An introduction to applying the principles of mechanical engineering – primarily solid mechanics and dynamics – to living systems. The course will focus on the biomechanics of human movement, particularly the process of inverse dynamics during locomotion, and also on the mechanical properties of biological tissues. Open-ended project work will be a significant component of the course. No prior biological knowledge will be assumed.
  • Engineering Research and Methods: A research course that explores the techniques and knowledge necessary to design and conduct experiments. It will include the nature and scope of a research project, how to conduct literature searches, and how to design methods and protocols for problem solving. In collaboration with a faculty mentor(s), students will choose and conduct a research project. Project results will be presented in a departmental seminar.
  • Cell and Molecular Biology: An introduction to molecular mechanisms in living organisms. Topics include structure and functions of cellular components, gene structure and expression, and recombinant DNA technology. Concepts of reductionism and evolutionary theory will be addressed. Three lectures and one laboratory period of three hours per week.
  • Human Anatomy: A detailed study of the organ systems of the human body, with an emphasis on dissections, including cadaver dissections. Three lectures and one laboratory per week.
  • Human Physiology: An advanced study of the functions of the human body and how it responds to stress and disease. Three lectures and one laboratory per week.
  • Organic Chemistry: Structure and Mechanism: In this foundational organic chemistry course, students will learn the foundational topics and problem-solving skills needed to understand the plethora of chemical reactions that involve compounds containing carbon. A working knowledge and application of topics such as nucleophiles, electrophiles, acids, bases, stereochemistry, mechanism, kinetics, substitution reactions, elimination reactions, carbonyl chemistry, and conformational analysis will be developed. Through a detailed understanding of the chemistry, an honest discussion of ethical implications, and a thoughtful interaction with the material we will develop an understanding of how God reveals himself through his creational structure.
  • Advanced Organic Chemistry: BioOrganic: In this advanced organic chemistry course, students will learn the application of organic chemistry to the processes of life. Through the process of reviewing chemical literature articles that report metabolic pathways and the total synthesis of biological products, students will apply the foundational ideas learned in Chemistry 225, classify reactions based on analogy, articulate an understanding of topics such as stereoselectivity and regioselectivity, and consider how biological catalysts accommodate chemical reactions. Through an in-depth application of the chemistry, an honest discussion of implications, and a thoughtful interaction with the material we will develop an understanding of how God has created a world in which life is supported through organic chemistry.
  • Biochemistry: Study of the foundations of biochemistry, starting with the structures and functions of small biomolecules—amino acids, monosaccharides, fatty acids and nucleotides—to macro-biomolecules—peptides, proteins (enzymes), oligosaccharides, nucleic acids and lipids. With this knowledge of biomolecules, the principles of metabolism, enzyme kinetics, catalytic strategies, regulatory strategies, and allosteric enzymes will be studied. Introduction to transduction and energy storage involved with glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, the citric acid cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, and fatty acid metabolism. After exploring God’s beautiful design of biomolecules, the students will understand how God’s hand is working in living cells and thereby give glory to God.
  • Introduction to Microprocessors and Digital Circuits: Digital circuits are covered, from simple logic gates through elementary microprocessor architecture. The course begins with elementary logic for binary systems, Boolean algebra, binary integer number formats and arithmetic, and combinational design. Intermediate topics include synchronous state machine design and register level concepts. The course concludes with topics in microprocessor architecture that include elementary assembly language and interfacing. Laboratory provides hands-on experience in logic design and microprocessor interfacing and includes two formal design projects. This course serves both computer science and engineering students.
  • Mechatronics and Instrumentation: An introduction to engineering mechatronics with applications of engineering measurement, data acquisition, instrumentation, sensors, actuators, digital and analog signal fundamentals, automatic control, and other electro-mechanical system interfacing.
  • Thermal-Chemical Systems: Engineering thermodynamics applied to chemical, energy, and environmental systems. Students will study cycles and efficiencies, mixtures and solutions, chemical reactions, chemical and phase equilibrium, combustion thermodynamics, availability analysis, gas mixtures and psychrometrics, and thermal-fluid systems analysis. Applications to chemical reactors, combustion systems, emissions measurement, efficiency assessment, and indoor/outdoor air quality will be explored.
  • Heat Transfer: Studies of the three modes of heat transfer (conduction, convection, and radiation) with application to heat exchangers. Computer methods are used extensively for heat transfer design and analysis. A formal heat exchanger design project is included in this course.
  • Embedded Microcontroller Systems: A course on the design of microcontroller-based systems and the associated software and hardware. Software issues such as modular design, interrupt-driven I/O, and design for reliability are covered. Hardware issues such as serial and parallel interfacing, bus structures, grounding and shielding, and D/A and A/D conversions are also studied. Lab exercises provide design experience using a particular microcontroller or a softprocessor foundation in an FPGA.
  • Computational Mechanics: A senior-level computational modeling and design course focused on the application of finite element analysis (FEA) and other computer simulation tools for stress, deflection, thermal, kinematic, or dynamic modeling.
  • Machine Design: A senior-level design course in the analysis and design of machine elements. The first half of the course covers materials processing; stress-strain analysis; as well as failure criteria for static and dynamic loading. The second half of the course applies these fundamentals to the specification and design of several machine elements such as, shafts, bearings, gears, springs, fasteners, clutches, brakes, and slider cranks, four-bar linkages, cams. Students will complete an open-ended mechanical design project. Familiarity with computer software capable of solving iterative design problems is required.
  • Environmental Engineering: An introduction to water supply and wastewater treatment, solid waste management, hazardous waste disposal, pollution control equipment, and other topics relating to the engineer’s role for ensuring clean air and providing clean water to communities. Methods and equipment for monitoring and testing air and water quality will be examined.
  • Electronics I: A study of the flow of electricity in, and application of, semiconductor devices. Topics include basic signals and amplifier characteristics, operational amplifiers models and applications, diodes and applications, field effect transistors, bipolar junction transistors, and methods of amplification with single-transistor circuits. The laboratory includes a number of short design problems.
  • Electronics I: A continuation of Engineering 322. Topics include biasing strategies for discrete and integrated circuit designs, current mirrors, differential and multistage amplifiers, frequency response, feedback, and stability. The laboratory includes construction of a kit, which introduces students to power output stages, tuned amplifiers, and demodulator circuits. The laboratory also includes a short design problem.
  • Introduction to Power System Analysis: An introduction to the design, planning, and operation of electric power utilities. Includes principles of economic dispatch and politics that impact design and operating strategies. Topics include power transmission lines, transformers, generators, system modeling, load flow analysis, faults, and system stability.
  • Dynamic Systems and Process Control: A study of the dynamics and automatic control of systems. Topics include dynamic system modeling, feedback, steady-state operation, transient response, root loci, state-space representation, frequency response, stability criteria, and compensation. A variety of system types are modeled and analyzed, including mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, thermal, and chemical systems. Structured modeling approaches using Laplace transform methods and state equations are explored.
  • Control Systems Lab: A laboratory course in the dynamic modeling and automatic control of mechanical and electrical systems.
  • Introduction to Communication Systems: A study of analog and digital communication systems performance and theory with applications in radio, satellite, telephone, computer networking, and radar systems. Topics include linear modulation (AM, SSB, etc.), exponential modulation (FM and PM), sampling theory, the discrete-time and discrete-frequency domains, and basic digital modulation methods such as m-ary PSK, DPSK, OFDM, etc. The topic of noise is considered at the most elementary level sufficient to distinguish the performance of various modulation methods in the presence of noise.

See the course catalog for more information

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Faculty

With experience in a variety of fields, our faculty members are equipped and ready to help you succeed.

Science and Technology Center

While studying biomedical engineering, you'll have the opportunity to spend time in Dordt's Science and Technology Center. Informally known as the "Science Building," the Science and Technology Center is home to labs for mechanical engineering, electronics, electrical engineering, and computer-aided design.

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A front exterior view of the Science and Technology Center

Student Stories

͹Ƶstudents and alumni use their gifts to make a difference in the world. Check out their stories to see how Defender Nation lives out our mission to work effectively toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life.

A picture of Andrew De Haan

Yielding Fruit

Andrew De Haan

Dordt's engineering program prepared Andrew in ways he did not anticipate before entering the workforce.

Andrew De Haan

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A picture of Darrin Beekman

Grounding in God's Story

Darrin Beekman

Beekman looks back and acknowledges the most valuable aspect of Dordt's engineering program being the grounding of their work within God's story.

Darrin Beekman

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