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Biomed program could help build local field

New UH degree plan taps into fastest-growing U.S. engineering field and local medical need

By Saba Jamali
The Daily Cougar

With Houston's reputation as a medical center, it seemed just a matter of time before an undergraduate program in biomedical engineering emerged at UH.

The program, which began in the fall, studies ways to improve health care through innovative technology, including non-invasive medical procedures that can diagnose and treat serious medical conditions.

"Biomedical engineering is the fastest-growing engineering discipline in the U.S. right now," Cullen College of Engineering Dean Raymond Flumerfelt said. "With the Medical Center here, we need to be in the health science and biomedical areas -- it just makes sense." 

Institutions in the Texas Medical Center generate a great deal of new technology, but Flumerfelt said those developments end up being used elsewhere. UH officials hope the new program at the University will help technology created in Houston stay here and create a strong local biotech industry.

"Biomedical engineering is a new field, so if you graduate early when the field is still young, there'll be a great demand, in my opinion," David Panthagani, a freshman in the program, said.

Admission to the biomedical engineering program is based on high standards -- students starting in the program must generally be in the top 10 or 15 percent of their graduating classes and have SAT scores of about 1230, Ralph Metcalfe, deputy director of the program, said.

Fifteen students are enrolled in the program, but the college hopes to add faculty in the coming years to accommodate a larger number of students.

Metcalfe said he expects the degree to be in demand.

"The BioHouston consortium here is a group of companies that are very much interested in medical technology, medical developments, biomedical engineering -- so there will be lots of opportunities (for students) to interact with people like that," he said.

Other benefits may develop as well, including an agreement the department is working on with the Texas Medical Center under which students with a certain GPA in the program would automatically be admitted to medical school, Flumerfelt said.

That deal is expected to be finalized in the coming months and will include the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Hassan Khalil, a sophomore in the program, is working on two projects involving stent design and blood flow. Stents are the wire mesh tubes used to reinforce arteries after angioplasties are performed.

Khalil said he isn't sure whether he will go to medical school, but he said, "the future is in favor of such a program because research opportunities are available and there are many discoveries to be made."

Panthagani encouraged more students to get involved with the program.

"With Dr. (Matthew) Franchek and Dr. Metcalfe as the directors of this thing, there's no telling where it'll go," he said. "They're really motivated."

For Nilou Ebrahimi, a biomedical engineering sophomore and career guidance chairwoman of the Society of Women Engineers, it was the promise of discovery that attracted her to the program.

"I wanted a challenge, and the challenge I felt was engineering," she said. "Anyone who's ambitious in learning can do this, because the program is so new and they're learning so many new things every day.

"Anyone can do it -- it's just that you have to be passionate about it," Ebrahimi said.

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