Summary of Engineering Research

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Bioengineering
B. C. Wheeler, Director

During this reporting period, the Executive Committee of the Bioengineering Faculty included E. G. Jakobsson, Chair, R. B. Clarkson, and B. C. Wheeler
53 Everitt Laboratory, 1406 W. Green St., MC-702, Urbana, IL 61801-2991
217-333-1867 • http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/bioen/

Bioengineering combines the analytical tools and methods of engineering and the physical sciences with details of biology and medicine to provide better understanding of biological phenomena and of living systems, to create new instruments and techniques to deal with biologically and medically oriented problems, and ultimately to improve the human condition.

Bioengineering research is conducted by the faculty, students, and staff of the College of Engineering as well as the colleges of Veterinary Medicine; Applied Life Sciences; Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences; Medicine; and Liberal Arts and Sciences (schools of Chemical Sciences, Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Integrative Biology). The projects are interdisciplinary in nature and require, in many cases, close cooperation among individuals trained in different disciplines.

•A program of bioacoustic studies draws heavily on researchers with backgrounds in electrical engineering, physiology, biophysics, and medicine.
•Faculty from many departments are involved in studies of the properties of normal and diseased bones, orthopedic implants, immune response, and biomechanics.
•The program has great strength in medical and biological imaging, including ultrasound, MRI, fMRI, optical coherence tomography, and fluorescence dynamics, as well as contrast agents to assist many imaging modalities.
•Projects dealing with the thermal and electrical behavior of living systems involve mechanical engineers, physicists, biophysicists, physiologists, and anatomists.
•Computational bioengineering includes simulation and informatics.
•Bioengineering simulation studies are conducted by physicists, chemists, physiologists, integrative biologists, electrical engineers, and computer scientists.
•Bioinformatics studies are carried out by physiologists, microbiologists, and crop scientists.
•A team of physiologists and engineers is carrying out advanced research leading to commercial development in intelligent hearing aid design.
•Other areas of research, such as bioinstrumentation, biomaterials, comparative biomedicine, and radiation studies, also require researchers with similar interests but differing fields of expertise.

A significant amount of the bioengineering research activity at the University of Illinois is carried out at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Research and Technology, where interdisciplinary work is nurtured and promoted.

Bioengineering has been supported by the university administration and has received a Graduate Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health. Bioengineering faculty members formed the Biomedical Engineering Systems Team to help establish and collaborate with a shared bioengineering center, which provides engineering and technical services to hospitals and clinics in east-central Illinois.

The broad scope of research activities described here reflects the interests of participating faculty and students currently involved in the field. Graduate education in bioengineering is closely associated with the various research projects described. The research projects conducted in the College of Engineering are also included in their respective departmental sections of the Summary of Engineering Research.