CBE PhD Degree Program Descriptions

Fifty-seven (57) semester hours are required for the Ph.D. degree in BME as follows:

1. Fifteen (15) semester hours of BME core graduate courses
2. Fifteen (15) semester hours of approved graduate electives
3. Twenty-seven (27) semester hours of BME 6980, Dissertation
4. Successful completion of BME 8965, Doctoral Preliminary Exam (0) (P/F grade only)
5. Successful defense of an oral and written dissertation - BME 8985, Dissertation Defense (0) (P/F grade only)
6. Registration and attendance at all departmental seminars - BME 5935, Chemical Engineering Seminar (0)

Required Biomedical Engineering Core Graduate Courses (fifteen [15] semester hours):

• ECH 5052 - Research Methods in Chemical Engineering (3)
• ECH 5261 - Advanced Transport Phenomena I (3)
• ECH 5840 - Advanced Chemical Engineering Mathematics I (3)
• ECH 5852 Advanced Chemical Engineering Computations (3)
• XXX XXXX - Approved course in physiology or cell biology (3)

An approved course in Physiology or Cell Biology is required for completion of the graduate BME degree. Approved courses include:

• PCB 5137 - Advanced Cell Biology
• PCB 5204C - Cell Physiology (FAMU)
• PCB 5525 - Molecular Biology
• PCB 5595 - Advanced Molecular Biology
• PCB 5795 - Sensory Physiology
• PCB 5845 - Cell and Molecular Neuroscience 
• BCH 5405 - Molecular Biology

Additional courses may satisfy the physiology/biology requirement but require a petition to the Graduate Committee for approval as a core substitute.

Biomedical Engineering Graduate Electives (fifteen [15] semester hours):

Minimum 6 semester hours are required to be in the biomedical engineering major elective courses list. Students should consult with their faculty advisor to determine the elective courses offered by the department. Typical biomedical engineering elective courses:

• BME 5362 - Neural Engineering (3)
• BME 5937r - Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering (3)
• BME 6530 - NMR and MRI Methods in Biology and Medicine (3)

Find other elective courses in the CBE Approved Graduate Elective List.

Dissertation Hours (twenty-seven [27] semester hours):

• BME 6980 - Dissertation (1- 9) (S/U grade only)

Dissertation Defense (Zero [0] semester hours):

• BME 8985 - Dissertation Defense (0) (P/F grade only)

Degree Requirements

Fifty-seven semester hours and the following requirements must be completed successfully for the award of the Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering, as follows:

1. Passing BME 8965 Doctoral Preliminary Examination within two consecutive exam attempts (see Ph.D. preliminary examination requirements below for more details). Successful completion will result in an initial admission to Ph.D. candidacy.
2. Completion of a minimum of thirty semester hours of advanced coursework (including fifteen semester hours of core coursework and fifteen semester hours of electives).
3. Completion of at least twenty-seven semester hours of dissertation research listed as repeatable course BME 6980 Dissertation.
4. Registration and attendance at all departmental seminars listed as repeatable course BME 5935 Biomedical Engineering Seminar.
5. Selection of a research topic and faculty advisor(s).
6. Formation of a supervisory committee in consultation with the faculty advisor(s).
7. Submission and defense of a prospectus on the dissertation topic to the supervisory committee. Successful completion will result in formal admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.
8. One semester teaching assistantship in an undergraduate laboratory.
9. Presentation of a research topic at one local, regional, national, or international professional meeting.
10. Submission or publication of scholarly articles (minimum of one) based on original dissertation research in peer-reviewed journals.
11. Satisfaction of the University Scholarly Engagement requirement.
12. Passing BME 8985 Dissertation Defense. At least two hours of dissertation (BME 6980) must be registered concurrently during the term of the dissertation defense (BME 8985).

No course with a grade below “C” will be counted toward the fulfillment of degree requirements. No more than one course with a grade in the “C” range will be counted toward the fulfillment of degree requirements.

All paperwork associated with the above requirements (see forms) must be submitted in a timely fashion to the Departmental office with appropriate signatures for review by the Graduate Committee and its Chair.

All BME graduate students are required to attend the Program for Instructional Excellence (PIE) Workshop to prepare for teaching assistant (TA) duties. This requirement is mandatory regardless of the student's classification as a teaching assistant or research assistant. In addition, all students are required to take safety training courses as necessary.

Students with a master’s degree in BME from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering may, with approval of the graduate committee and major professor, take six (6) additional approved semester hours beyond the thesis-type master's course requirements to satisfy the thirty (30) semester hours requirement for the PhD. All other requirements must be fulfilled as stated above.

Purpose and Format - Successful Ph.D. candidates will have a sound background in engineering, as well as the creativity and judgment necessary to conduct independent research. The purpose of the Preliminary Examination is to assess these qualities with an emphasis on evaluating the student's potential to conduct an original course of study and investigation. The Preliminary Examination tests the student's ability (1) to define, describe and examine critically relevant literature; (2) to think creatively and to apply basic chemical/biomedical engineering concepts; (3) to communicate in a scholarly and rigorous manner the progress and results of research; and (4) to conduct productive, rigorous and creative scientific investigations.

This exam will be based on the student’s ability to evaluate a fundamental research article from the literature on chemical engineering. Specifically, the student will be asked to:

• Identify the problems addressed in the paper;
• Formulate a critical appraisal of the authors' contributions to the problem and the significance of the work;
• Critically evaluate the technical soundness of the approach used and results obtained;
• Summarize and critique advances in the field since the publication of the assigned article;
• Propose in concrete terms research work that might be done to extend and (if necessary) improve upon the study discussed in the article; and
• Comment on the incorporation of the article's findings into the potential course of dissertation work of the student.

The Graduate Preliminary Examination Committee, which will be comprised of at least three faculty members, will assign a fundamental article from the literature on chemical or biomedical engineering. Three weeks following the assignment of the chosen research article, the student will be required to submit a written report on the exam problem as well as any additional commentaries or simulations deemed critical by the student. This report will be distributed to all members of the Preliminary Examination Committee for review. Committee members will submit comments and questions back to the prospective Ph.D. candidate within 5 business days. This review will identify (a) aspects of the written report that require additional attention or (b) critical research points that will need to be addressed in the oral presentation.

After the submission of the report and the return of the committee's review, the student will give an oral presentation to the Preliminary Examination Committee. The oral presentation will be approximately one hour in length. The student will give a 40-minute presentation open to the public, followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session. The oral presentation should address the exam criteria, as well as any issues raised by the committee's review of the submitted written report. Additionally, the student is permitted to submit any supplementary information to augment the written report. An edited written report should have been submitted by this time.

Following the oral presentation, the Preliminary Examination Committee will evaluate the student's performance in a closed session. Three outcomes are possible: pass, provisional pass, or fail. An affirmative majority vote from the faculty is required for the student to pass the examination. A unanimous vote for a provisional pass will require the student to satisfy additional requirements deemed necessary by the Preliminary Examination Committee, such as (but not limited to) the successful completion of specific coursework or the completion of an M.S. degree prior to granting a full Ph.D. candidacy. A pass or provision pass of the Preliminary Examination will permit the student to begin or continue research work contributing to the student's dissertation. If neither a pass nor provisional pass vote is reached, the student will have failed the Preliminary Examination. At the discretion of the Preliminary Examination Committee, the student may have one further opportunity to retake the examination. This re-examination will be scheduled at the discretion of the Graduate Committee and may require the student to retake the exam in a subsequent semester. Failure of the Preliminary on two occasions will eliminate the student from consideration for Ph.D. candidacy.

Upon successful completion of the comprehensive exam, the student is admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.

All prospective Ph.D. candidates must enroll in the appropriate Preliminary Exam course (either BME 8965 or ECH 8965) for the semester that they intend to take the preliminary examination.