Our M.S. program focuses on biodevice engineering, biomaterials and tissue engineering, and biomolecular engineering.
You can earn your degree as either a full-time or part-time student, through a customized balance of coursework, directed research, and/or thesis research. Students also supplement their technical work with coursework on other topics that are specified in the graduate engineering core curriculum.
M.S. Degree Requirements
Students must complete a minimum of 46 quarter units, including required core and elective courses within the School of Engineering.
If you decide to do optional thesis work, you are required to engage in research that results, for example, in the development of a new approach to solving a relevant bioengineering problem, or a technical tool, a design criteria, or a biomedical application. This work should be documented in a journal publication, conference, or research report, and must also be included in a Master's thesis.
Alternative elective courses may be taken subject to approval from the student's advisor. Courses used to meet the 46-unit minimum cannot include those previously used to satisfy an undergraduate degree program requirement. This includes cross-listed undergraduate courses at Santa Clara and equivalent courses at other institutions. If some required courses have been completed prior to graduate-level matriculation at SCU, additional electives will be required to satisfy the minimum unit total requirement.
minimum 8 units including BIOE 210
In addition to BIOE 210, students must take at least 1 course (minimum 2 units) from the other 2 graduate core areas:
- Emerging Topics in Engineering
- Engineering and Business/Entrepreneurship
Remaining 4 units may be completed by one of the following.
- One or more technical electives
- Additional classes from Graduate Core
- Cooperative Education courses (ENGR 288/289)
- Combination of options 1-3
4 units
AMTH 200 & 201 (or 202), 210 & 211 (or 212), or AMTH 245 & 246
5 units
BIOE 200 (twice)
BIOE 232 & 232L
10 or 16 units
Primary focus area:
6 units from one focus area (additional 6 units are required for Computational Bioengineering or Translational Bioengineering)
Other focus area(s):
4 units from other focus areas
- Biomolecular Engineering/Biotechnology
BIOE 250 or 263 or 302, 257, 282, 283, 286, 288, 300, 301
- Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
BIOE 258, 259, 269, 270, 273 - Microfluidics/Biosensors and Imaging
BIOE 216, 260, 267, 268, 276, 277, 308 - Computational Bioengineering
BIOE 216, 227A, 227B, 251, 252, 261, 263, 281, 312
Advanced Applied Mathematics (6 units)
AMTH 240, 364, 370, 371, 377 - Translational Bioengineering
BIOE 206, 250 or 263 or 302, 279, 285, 307, 380, 381
Graduate Capstone Project* (6 units)
BIOE 294, 295, 296
*A three-quarter long Capstone project with external mentor(s), or jointly supervised by Bioengineering faculty. The Capstone provides regular support and training on a broad range of topics and issues, including an introduction of concepts in design, innovation, and clinical trials of biomedical devices; discussions of strategies for translational research and product development; IP and FDA regulatory issues; and skills to help students improve proposal writing and presentation skills.
13 or 19 units
All graduate-level BIOE courses (except BIOE 210) may count as Technical Electives.
Select graduate courses from ELEN, MECH, or COEN may be credited as Technical Electives upon approval by faculty advisor.
A maximum of 3 units total of Directed Research (BIOE 297) may be credited for Technical Electives if also doing the Master's Thesis option (BIOE 397, maximum 9 units total), otherwise a maximum of 6 units total of BIOE 297 is allowed.
Submission of a Master's Thesis is required for BIOE 397.
For students in the accelerated B.S./M.S. program, a maximum of 20 units may be transferred to the M.S. degree.
For non-SCU students, a maximum of 9 units may be transferred to the M.S. degree.