Bruce Wooley 1 Stanford University

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Biology and Engineering

• Bruce Wooley
• Stanford University

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Biology in Engineering at Stanford

• Applications in biology and medicine pervade the
  School of Engineering e.g.
• Biomechanical engineering in ME
• Medical imaging, biological sensors, medical
  devices neuroscience and engineering in EE
• Bioanalysis, biocatalysis, biochemistry in ChemE
• Biocomputation in CS
• Environmental biotechnology in CEE
• Undergraduate degree programs in biomechanical
  engineering and biomedical computation
• New Bioengineering department
• Joint department in Schools of Engineering and
  Medicine
• Initially a graduate department, but will build
  an undergraduate program
• Clark Center Bio-X program

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Stanford EE Department

• 57 tenure-line faculty members (47.5 FTE)
• 19 joint appointments
• 99 declared undergraduate students
• UG admissions through University must compete
  for students
• 898 graduate students (466 PhD students)
• Graduate admissions through department
• 12 of graduate students at Stanford
• 71 PhD, 236 MS and 52 BS degrees in 2003-04
• 180 quarter units required for BSEE
• 45 units of math and science
• 68 units of engineering topics
• 61 units in general education, language, writing
• 3 humanities and 2 writing courses in freshman
  year

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Future of Electrical Engineering

• At its core, EE is the discipline that provides
  the technology for sensing, processing, storing,
  communicating and using information
• Research in EE is driven largely by applications
• interesting application areas for EE continue to
  expand
• Biology is potentially the richest and most
  rewarding area in which to find new applications
  for the techniques, tools and technology of EE
• The future of EE is being impacted by
• increasing breadth of interactions with the
  physical sciences, especially biology
• growing importance of interdisciplinary activity
• increasingly rapid change
• changing student backgrounds

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Neural Control of Prosthetic Devices K. Shenoy
Neural signals to move real arm
Neural sensors
Visual
Motor
Neural prosthetic experiments with behaving
monkeys
Signal acquisition andmovement
estimation (algorithms, circuits and systems)
Spinal cord injury
Prosthetic Arm
Control signals to move prosthetic arm
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Changing the Undergraduate Curriculum

• Driven by the growing breadth of EE and changing
  student backgrounds
• Students have less physical intuition
• Little tolerance for delayed gratification
• Emphasis on increased flexibility
• Reduce number of core courses required of all EE
  students
• Rethink and rebuild the lower division
  requirements in math and science
• e.g. chemistry is no longer required
• But chemistry is a prerequisite for biology
  courses at Stanford
• New undergraduate core
• Three 2-quarter sequences required of all EEs
  signals systems, electronics, and digital
  systems
• Four specialty (depth) areas
• Digital Systems hardware, software
• Signals, Systems Control control, signal
  processing/communications
• Electronics analog RF, digital electronics
• EM fields waves, solid-state photonics

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How Much Biology?

• Should it be a requirement?
• No but need enough flexibility that it can be an
  elective.
• What should it replace?
• It needs to be an option, not a requirement, in a
  flexible undergraduate curriculum.
• When should students take it?
• Early if possible, but that depends on
  prerequisites for available courses in biology.
• At Stanford, we hope to build an undergraduate
  curriculum in cooperation with the new
  Bioengineering department.
• e.g. 3-course mezzanine sequence developed by
  Greg Kovacs (Molecular Cellular Engineering,
  Systems Biology Tissue Engineering, Medical
  Devices Pharmaceuticals)
• but still need an efficient introduction to
  biology i.e. an integrated introduction