Master’s Program
***Please make sure you and your advisor (if required) have signed these forms before submitting.***
- MS Program Description
- MS Tracking Document
- MS Degree Competency Waiver
- Graduate Degree Petition Form
BME Graduate Plans of Study
All first-year graduate students should fill out a Plan of Study form and review it with their Academic Advisor. Forms for each BME Graduate Degree Program are below, along with examples for guidance.
- Master of Engineering (ME) form
- Master of Science (MS) form-Thesis/Project
- Graduate Program Requirements (see tracking sheets in excel version)
FAQ:
- What technical depth areas are available?
- The handbook provides a few examples of classes that comprise technical depth in a coherent area, but you can propose any group of 15 credit-hours (usually 5 courses) to fulfill your technical depth requirement. The courses must be technical in nature (e.g. not any of the regulatory courses offered by BME; for specific questions contact the Department) and must be linked together in some way. Examples of possible technical depth areas include biomechanics and robotics, biomaterials, imaging and instrumentation, machine learning and informatics, etc. Technical depth courses that carry a BME designator also count towards your 12 credits of BME coursework.
- How do the competencies work?
- These are “checkboxes.” The requirements may be met in one of three ways:
- Coursework – which can also overlap with your technical depth courses and/or your BME courses. A list of courses that may be used fulfill each competency is provided in the Graduate Catalog. For students in the BS/MS program, 4000+ level undergraduate courses covering specific topics may be used to demonstrate graduate level competency (e.g. a 4000 level mathematics course can fulfill the math competency, a 4000 biology course may fulfill the biology competency).
- Through a waiver request. A waiver will be granted if you can demonstrate experience in a particular area either through prior degree, project/thesis topic, or work experience. Normally, 20-40 hours of experience in a particular field is sufficient to support a waiver request.
- Through thesis or project work. Up to 2 competencies may be met through thesis or project work. To document this, the student and advisor must both certify that project demonstrates competence at the graduate level.
- These are “checkboxes.” The requirements may be met in one of three ways:
- Do my thesis or project credit hours (BME 597 and BME 599) count as part of my 12 credits of BME coursework?
- No. The 12 credits of BME coursework includes only formal coursework.
- Do my thesis or project credit hours (BME 597 and BME 599) count towards my technical depth?
- Yes. You may designate up to 3 credit hours of project/thesis work as technical depth.
- Can any class count as technical depth?
- No. Although most courses offered by WPI are technical in nature, some are not. For example Scientific Communication, and classes focusing on FDA/regulations are not considered technical. Similarly, Physiology and Cell and Molecular Biology for Engineers are considered life sciences classes, not technical/engineering courses. These are designated in the Graduate Catalog.
- No more than one life sciences or regulatory course may be applied towards the technical depth requirement, and the course must be relevant to the depth area. When in doubt, please contact the BME Graduate Program for questions about specific courses.
- What exactly is a project? How is it different than a thesis?
- A project is similar in scope to a MS thesis, but is not limited to research only. Rather, it can be more applied, and can be done in a setting outside of a research lab (e.g. within the context of a co-op, or in collaboration with a clinician).
- The project requires a proposal, which outlines the goals/purpose, specific aims, and deliverables.
- The final project must be orally presented publicly (or within a company) in an appropriate format. E.g., a poster presentation, seminar, or similar.
- There must also be a written document (e.g., a technical and/or user manual for something you designed, online portfolio / educational content / training documentation, or whatever the agreed-upon deliverable is). Except when non-disclosure agreements have been signed, it must be made publicly available. An example project syllabus is available.
- A project has a sponsor and a faculty advisor. The sponsor is the person who is directly involved in overseeing the completion of the proposed work (e.g. the supervisor, clinician, or faculty member with whom you are directly working). The faculty advisor is the WPI Faculty Member who will work with you to fulfill the BME project requirements. For projects completed on campus, the sponsor and faculty advisor may be the same person.
- A project is similar in scope to a MS thesis, but is not limited to research only. Rather, it can be more applied, and can be done in a setting outside of a research lab (e.g. within the context of a co-op, or in collaboration with a clinician).
- I’m a BS/MS and want to do a project along with my co-op. But the rules say that I can’t register for BME 5900 until I’m at least 12 credits into a MS degree. What am I supposed to do?
- You should look at all of the courses that you are planning to count towards your degree, including those that you can “double count”. Many students complete their senior year with more than 12 credits of MS work. For example, each 4000 level undergraduate course is 2 credits, and each graduate course is 3 credits. You may double count up to 9 credits total, including 3 4000-level classes, towards both your BS and MS degrees. You may pursue a co-op outside of the official graduate co-op designation.
- What if I just want to do a coursework-only Master’s degree? Can I do this as a BS/MS?
- You can still do this. Although we have used the term “BS/MS” to describe this, you are not technically planning to complete an MS because a coursework only graduate degree is called an ME (“Masters of Engineering”) degree. The ME itself hasn’t changed from previous years. It does not require a thesis or a project, although you may include up to 6 credit-hours of Directed Research (BME 598) as part of your degree completion. These would count towards your electives (3 credits) and towards your BME courses (3 credits).
- What’s all this about a committee?
- The third member of the committee is usually assigned close to the end of the project(around 6 weeks before the presentation). There is no need for the committee to meet. The student is expected to meet regularly with sponsor and faculty advisor during the project. The sponsor is responsible for the technical aspect and faculty advisor to make sure that project meets department requirements. The committee is ultimately responsible for approving the project.
- All committee members must have an opportunity to provide input into the project before the final presentation. As a practical matter, this means that students should provide their full committee with a draft report approximately 3-4 weeks before their final report and presentation, so that constructive critiques may be incorporated.
- According to the Graduate Handbook (page 35,”The MS Project Report must be given to all Project Committee members for review at least 10 days prior to the MS Project Examination. Following the MS Project Presentation, the student must defend the written project before the Project Committee. Students should schedule 30 minutes with their committee for this examination.
- The student successfully passes the examination if a majority of the committee members vote approval.
- If the student does not pass the examination, the Committee shall make a recommendation to the BME Graduate Studies Committee. This recommendation may include:
• Rewriting the project report/deliverable, or part of it.
• Doing additional work on the project.
