It must be a consequence of the speed with which technology changes—the way, that is, the term “bioengineering” is greeted as pedestrian, merely another transitory addition to our vocabulary of rapid scientific achievement. Yet as we easily grow accustomed to the news of engineered manipulations of biological systems, we could miss the full implications of the term.
Engineering is evolving. Its deepening crossover with biology is a discipline-altering development. This is no secret to researchers, and yet few academic programs formally acknowledge the shift. The very students who would populate such programs are generally being presented with discipline-specific choices in one engineering field or the other, as they have been for decades.
That is changing at Iowa State’s College of Engineering, where a long-standing reputation for interdisciplinary research is finding its way into degree programs. In that spirit, the newly established bioengineering minor began offering its first course, BioE 201X, in January 2009.
‘Engineering is changing dramatically’
The minor, which is open to all undergraduate engineering majors, is an interdisciplinary program that will provide students with more career options as engineers increasingly seek to solve biological problems. The minor provides specializations in bioinformatics and systems biology, biomaterials, biomechanics, biomicrosystems, biobased products, and bioprocessing.
Through this program, it is hoped, current engineering students will be able to explore the burgeoning potential of biological systems applications, and potential students will consider engineering as a career because of the growing possibilities of applying engineering to medical, environmental, and other biology-related fields.
Peter Reilly, Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and professor of chemical and biological engineering, is director of the program. Reilly chairs the Bioengineering Minor Supervisory Committee, provides leadership for curriculum development, and oversees implementation of the program.
“It’s important for our students to appreciate the increasing role that biology is playing in engineering,” Reilly says. “The field of engineering is changing dramatically, especially as it overlaps with biology. Students need to become aware of that overlap today so that they can be fully prepared for their careers.”
Reilly also happens to be the lead instructor for BioE 201X, a course he calls “a major experiment in how to teach a nonengineering course to a very diverse group of engineering students.” Six of Iowa State’s eight engineering disciplines are represented by students ranging from freshmen to seniors, nearly one-third of them women. Even the instruction is interdisciplinary: the course will be co-taught by Chenxu Yu, assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.
“We want to try to show how varied life is and the structure of it,” says Reilly, “and how it all plays out into so many different species.”
The human face of a profession
One of the 36 students in BioE 201X, Jordan Trachtenberg, is a prime example of why the bioengineering minor is being offered. The former chemical engineering student, who has transferred to materials science and engineering, was motivated by a mechanical engineering professor to pursue her interest in biomaterials for prostheses and minimally invasive surgical tools. Thus, she has chosen the biomaterials and biomechanics track of the minor.
Before college, Trachtenberg explains, “I always thought, ‘Well I don’t really want to be a doctor, but I would love to work in a lab and do research.’”
She found that opportunity with Pranav Shrotriya (see “Profile 2050,” p. 18), an assistant professor in mechanical engineering. Shrotriya’s work involves modifying and testing prosthetic hip implants, and Trachtenberg was given the undergraduate research opportunity of testing corrosive properties of the metal alloys that make up the implants.
“After working with him for several months,” Trachtenberg says, “I was convinced that a career in biomaterials research would be exciting and challenging. With the constantly growing need for engineers in the medical industry, it is my hope that this program will provide me with valuable tools to solve engineering problems in medicine.”
Trachtenberg’s motivations stem from pragmatism—“I didn’t want to go to college with no idea of what to do,” she says—as well as the altruism that is drawing many students to the biomedical and other “bio”-influenced fields. Those fields continue to draw students, particularly women, who are interested in helping people and making a difference in the world.
Warranted or not, engineering has long suffered from the perception that it offers neither of those opportunities. Programs such as bioengineering, and students such as Trachtenberg, may help change that view. “I grew up in a family that was very deeply rooted in volunteering and helping others,” she says. Her goals of joining the Peace Corps after graduation and working in Africa on issues such as sustainability exemplify an emerging spirit of engineers as difference makers in humanistic, and not just technical, ways.
Still plenty of equations
Just as Trachtenberg sees BioE 201X as her springboard into a minor that will augment a materials engineering degree, Reilly envisions a course that will be an important step in the integration of engineering and biology at Iowa State.
But there will be a few interesting challenges along the way. For example, the textbook, Biotechnology for Beginners, contains no equations.
“It’s a wonderful book, but we will need to give lectures that are more engineering oriented,” Reilly says. And that includes plenty of equations, he notes with a smile.
“This really is an experiment,” he says.