Biomedical engineering is a discipline that combines medicine and engineering to develop healthcare technologies necessary for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of patients. From the discovery of bacteria using a microscope, which is the beginning of biomedical engineering, and the use of X-rays for various diagnosis and tests, to imaging technologies such as CT and MRI that can easily be found in the medical field, biomedical engineering is quite close to our lives. As medical demands for extended human life and treatment of degenerative diseases increases, the scope and role of biomedical engineering will also increase, and the definition of “biomedical engineering” will also change accordingly. Biomedical engineering, which is emerging into a discipline where complex advanced technologies are concentrated beyond the integration between medicine and engineering, continues to develop into a future industry with more value through repeated innovation.

Biomedical engineering has evolved rapidly over the past 15 years. We now have body aids that provide a chance for a normal life by supplementing the damaged parts of the body, such as prosthetic arms, prosthetic legs, and hearing aids, and also the technology that checks blood sugar with a drop of blood. Recently, the development of personalized precision medical technology that can be implemented by biomedical engineering through the utilization of AI and big data, has accelerated even further.

Biomedical engineering lectures offered by the Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering at GIST are introductory lectures for students who are new to this field to build up their academic basis for the course. The biomedical engineering lectures, which started in 2011 as a mandatory subject for students of the major, “Introduction to Biomedical Engineering,” is currently offered in two courses: medical engineering and medical science. Students with engineering backgrounds must take medical science, and students with life science and medical backgrounds must take biomedical engineering. Biomedical engineering lectures cover physiological knowledge on molecule-cell-tissue such as molecular biology and cell biology to various fields of biomedical engineering such as physiology, oncology, biomaterials, immunology, bio devices, medical imaging, etc., In addition, the lecture contents are organized in a way to learn about theories, provide a chance to experience various medical engineering-related devices used in the field, such as pacemakers, stents, and endoscopic devices, and how such devices are developed. Through the course, students who take the biomedical engineering lectures can effectively learn about how a biomedical engineer provides solutions to problems arising when doctors diagnose and treat patients and how innovative medical treatments such as surgical robots are developed through the interaction between biomedical engineers and doctors who provide feed back on the developed technologies.

In the first class, students are asked to submit and share what they expect from the major subject and the biomedical engineering lectures. Since students have different majors and different levels of background knowledge, this is to adjust the contents and level of the class to the needs and demands of the students. This year, video lectures and video classes were given and questions were collected at the end of each lecture, and students took turns to present their answers for 6 to 8 minutes in the next class. Students show great satisfaction because the presentations are made on how the engineering knowledge learned during the lecture can be applied in real life, related research fields, or important concepts. In addition, we do a team project once every semester on an in-depth topic. Teams are organized with students who are medical doctors, students from different majors, and students from different labs to submit and present abstracts in the form of an academic conference presentation. This year, students created YouTube videos in a project called COVID-202X. Through this project, we explored the current coronavirus diagnosis methods and how biomedical engineering knowledge can contribute to difficult issues arising during the vaccine development process. I believe that this biomedical engineering class, where students with various backgrounds learn and communicate with each other, provides them with an experience that deepens their understanding of others while embracing different perspectives when they become researchers or workers in society.

The bio-medical healthcare field, which is developing into a cutting-edge technology-intensive industry, needs medical and engineering experts as well as the experts with various specialties. It will be helpful to not only graduate students majoring in biomedical engineering but also for undergraduate students who are interested in or considering biomedical engineering, as well as students who want to know how their specialty can contribute to the future medical industry. More and more clinicians, who are determined to solve problems in the medical field, require the skills to suggest solutions and also to communicate based on engineering knowledge. We hope many talented students at GIST gain valuable experience to grow into professional researchers or entrepreneurs in their field of study through biomedical engineering lectures.