Project FAQ

To register for BME 597: Master’s Project, you must:

1. 1. Submit a completed BME Master’s Project Proposal form to BMEGradProgram@wpi.edu
   2. Be assigned or identify a BME faculty advisor
   3. Email the registrar@wpi.edu

Definition of a Master’s Project:

A Master’s Project is an open-ended project related to the field of Biomedical Engineering.  It may be completed within a laboratory setting at WPI, or in collaboration with an outside sponsor (e.g. industry partner or clinical partner).  All projects must include the following components:

• Goals statement and a defined Sponsor/client
• Written documentation, including a literature review and defined methods and analysis.
  • Examples include engineering processes, designs, plans, or computational modeling.
  • Examples include a report, prototype, patent, or other product.
• The project must:
  • include data collection/generation/analysis.
  • include statistical analysis/testing in some context
  • represent novel work by the student(s)

Finally, the project must be presented publicly in some format.

Terms:

• Advisor refers to the WPI faculty member who is responsible for ensuring the student fulfills all Departmental requirements for the project.
• Sponsor denotes the primary technical advisor on the project.
  • For off-campus projects, the Sponsor is usually the student’s direct supervisor.  For on-campus projects, the Sponsor is typically also the Faculty Advisor.
• A Departmental Committee consisting of the Advisor and two members of the Graduate Studies Committee will be responsible for approving the Master’s Project.

Expectations:

• Approval for the project is contingent upon the Project fulfilling all Departmental requirements.  If the project is performed with an external Sponsor, the committee shall consult with the sponsor prior to approving the final product.
• The project may be used to fulfil competency and technical depth requirements for the Project-based MS degree.  The Faculty Advisor may designate up to two (2) competencies that will be met through project work, using the checklist below.  Students may designate up to 3 credit-hours of project work towards their defined area of technical depth.
• Minimum of 4-5 hours per week of work on the project per credit hour
• The project is above and beyond your expected job duties. You are expected to spend time outside of a paid internship or coop on this project.
• Regular check-ins with project advisor, to be agreed upon between student and advisor

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:
    1. Coursework – which can also overlap with your technical depth courses and/or your BME courses. A list of courses that may be used fulfil 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 fulfil the math competency, a 4000 biology course may fulfil the biology competency).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.

• 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 publically (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 publically 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 fulfil the BME project requirements.  For projects completed on campus, the sponsor and faculty advisor may be the same person.

• How do I identify a sponsor, faculty advisor, and topic for a project (BME 597)?
  • You are responsible for identifying your own project topic.
    • If you plan to complete this requirement at WPI, you should have conversations with faculty members who are doing work that is of interest to you.  These individuals may be willing to work with you to identify a project topic and serve as sponsor for that work.
    • If you are planning a graduate co-op or internship, you should discuss a possible project with your supervisor at the beginning of the experience or even prior to beginning your experience.
    • If you are interested in completing a clinical-related project, you may identify a clinician of any discipline (e.g. dentist, physician, veterinarian, physical therapist etc) either through the Clinical Practice course (BME 592), by talking to faculty members, or through personal contacts.
    • Regardless of your project location, you must work together with your sponsor to identify a project topic, scope, and timeline.
• How do I register for BME 597?
  • You should register for BME 597 before the semester starts and before beginning work on your project.  Regular add/drop deadlines apply. Registering for a project requires two steps:
  • Complete the BME Project Registration Form and submit it to BMEGradPrograms@wpi.edu
  • Most students typically keep their academic advisors as BME faculty project advisors. If students do not identify a faculty advisor then they will be assigned one by the Graduate Studies Committee. This should happen within 3 weeks of the project proposal being submitted.

• 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 designator.

• 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.