Master of Engineering

Master of Engineering (MEng) Degree Program

Summary of the BME Program Requirements for the MEng Degree

Students in the MEng program must simultaneously satisfy the following degree requirements:
• WPI’s General Requirements for All Advanced Degrees.
• WPI’s General Requirements for the Master of Science and Master of Engineering Degrees.
• The BME Program’s Specific Requirements for the Master of Engineering Degree.
The first two institutional degree requirements are summarized below and detailed in WPI’s Graduate Catalog.
The BME Program’s specific degree requirements are explained fully in this chapter of the Handbook. These program requirements have been structured to incorporate all institutional degree requirements, so that satisfying the BME Program’s degree requirements for the ME will also satisfy the institutional degree
requirements. All degree requirements must be satisfied before the degree is awarded.

Institutional Degree Requirements

All students in the MEng program must satisfy the following:
• At the time the degree is awarded, the student must have been admitted to one of the ME programs in Biomedical Engineering.
• The student must have a program GPA of 3.0 or greater.
• The student must satisfy the graduate rules in effect at a single date between their matriculation date and their graduation date. In applying for graduation (the WPI Graduate Student Application for Graduation), the student must specify, by year, which WPI Graduate Catalog contains the rules being
satisfied.
After the Application for Graduation is submitted, all advanced degrees are subject to the final approval of the CGSR, which determines if the student has satisfied the letter of intent of the requirements for the MEng Degree. The CGSR makes its recommendations for the approval of the ME to the WPI faculty, which in turn recommends to the President and Trustees for their final approval the names of students who should be awarded the Master of Engineering Degree in Biomedical Engineering (MEng Program).

WPI’s General Requirements for the Master of Engineering Degree

All students in either MEng program must satisfy the following:
• The student must obtain a minimum of 30 credit hours of acceptable course or project work. A thesis is not required for the ME degree. (Note: The BME Program’s Specific Requirements for the ME Degree requires 33 credit hours of acceptable course or project work).
• A 1/3-unit WPI undergraduate course taken for graduate credit is assigned 2 credit hours of graduate credit.

Summary of the BME Program Requirements for the MEng Degree

While a complete description of the BME Program’s Requirements for the MEng Degree is provided later in this chapter, the following is a summary of these requirements. All students must satisfy the following:
• Pass the course requirement, which may include directed research credits.
• Fulfill the seminar requirement.

Exceptions and Petitions for Change

Exceptions to general and specific degree requirements or to other rules may be made, but only by written petition to the Committee on Graduate Studies and Research (CGSR) at WPI. A petition to CGSR should be initiated by the student, but normally should be written on behalf of the student by the BME Graduate Studies Committee.

Course Requirement

The MEng program has no formal course requirements. Course credits in the MEng Program must be distributed across the following categories with the noted minimums:
• Biomedical Engineering (12 credits)
• Life Sciences (3 credits)
• Advanced Engineering Mathematics (3 credits)
• Life Sciences or Advanced Engineering Mathematics (3 credits)
• Advanced Courses and Electives (12 credits)
Students may substitute 3 to 6 credits of directed research for 3 credits of biomedical engineering and/or 3 credits of electives. Any WPI graduate-level engineering, physics, math, BME, business or equivalent course, subject to the approval of the BME Graduate Studies Committee, may be used for Advanced Courses and Electives. The student must obtain a minimum of 24 credit hours of graduate-level courses. Other courses (to make up the minimum total of 33 credit hours) may include advanced undergraduate courses approved by the BME Graduate Studies Committee. Such courses are normally considered to be at the 4000-level.
The BME Graduate Studies Committee must approve the use of advanced undergraduate courses for the satisfaction of MEng degree requirements. The student’s Academic Advisor may require additional course work to address specific deficiencies in the student’s background.

Seminar Requirement

The MEng Program requires that all students attend BME seminars and, in addition, present a seminar once a year. To facilitate this process, students must enroll in BME 591 – Graduate Seminar. All MEng students are required to pass BME 591 twice. This graduate course is graded pass/fail for zero credits