My Major

My future was pretty much set in stone at the end of junior year of high school. I was going to go to the U of A to seek a future in medicine.  That's nice, but I really had no idea how I was going to get the medical field. I needed a real and "pre-med" wasn't one. My father influenced me to look into the engineering field, and he introduced me to a new major called biomedical engineering. My reaction was, "Cool ... but what is biomedical engineering?" After doing some research, here is what I found.

Milorad, Dimic. Monoplace hyperbaric chamber, Serbia. via Wikipedia. Attribution 3.0 Unported 

1. What do students in biomedical engineering learn to do? Biomedical engineering merges the medical field and the engineering field. Biomedical engineers make equipment to assist the medical field, such as bioimaging, bioprocessing, and cardiovascular equipment, nanomedicine, and sensors & implementation.
2. What do people who get degrees in biomedical engineering go on to do for work? Biomedical engineers can do a number of jobs. They are qualified to create and maintain various types of medical equipment, depending on the engineer's experience. This is helpful in hospitals, where there is an abundance of medical equipment, as well as in companies that make the equipment and constantly innovate it.
3. What drew you to this field? I was drawn to this field because I want to go into the medical field. I am proficient at math and science, which is a good fit with engineering, and biomedical engineering gives me knowledge of the medical field so I can do well on the MCAT down the road.
4. Who are the leaders/most exciting people in biomedical engineering right now? Why?Biomedical engineering is a relatively new area of study, but there are some individuals who have utilized it. Nicholas A. Peppas is a chemical and biomedical engineer. Most of his work has been done in drug delivery. Yuan-Cheng Fung has written many books on biomechanics, which is an integral part of biomedical engineering. There's an equation he made and named after himself. I'd try to explain it but honestly it's so far over my head that I can't. But if you have an equation named after you, it must be important.
5. What are the leading academic/scholarly journals in biomedical engineering? Where are they published? The top biomedical engineering journal is Nature Nanotechnology. It covers a variety of geeky subjects including biomedical engineering and consistently ranks in the top 25% every year since its conception. It is published by Nature Publishing Group based in the United Kingdom. Another journal is Nature Biotechnology. It is similar to Nature Nanotechnology in that it covers a variety of topics and has rated in the top 25% for the last 15 years by nerds all over the world. It is also published by Nature Publishing Group. Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering is also highly regarded. It does not cover a wide variety of subjects like the first two. It is published by Annual reviews Inc. based in California, USA.

Reflection:

I found two people in the class on a similar path as me, Savannah and Nick. I can relate to their posts because they aren't exactly sure what they want to do but they know that they are interested in engineering. Similarly, I knew I wanted to go into the medical field but I didn't know how I wanted to get there through much of my senior year in high school. I am very happy that I chose an engineering route rather than trying for a major in chemistry or biology. Like Savannah and Nick, engineering compliments my ability for math and science. They both mentioned that engineers work to better society and I agree 100%.