: The Third Biomedical Engineering Summit Meeting will be held in June 2008 and will be the first conference focusing on biomedical engineering education since 2005. The Whitaker Foundation, which completely supported the first two summits, is no longer available as a sponsor, and the Council of Chairs of Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering (CoC) and the Biomedical Engineering Division of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE BED) are cosponsoring this third summit. The conference is designed as a working meeting to foster progress in biomedical engineering education at the undergraduate level in a way that is not possible at any other meeting. Attendance will be limited, but will be open to all current and emerging biomedical engineering and bioengineering academic programs in the US (two individuals per institution), and will include representatives from industry and the field of learning science. Minority serving institutions will be particularly encouraged to attend, and selected international universities will also be invited. The conference objectives are to 1) share best practices in curriculum and pedagogy, 2) nurture and expand a community in which relevant individuals across the country and around the world know each other and their educational work, 3) exchange ideas about curriculum in a setting where biomedical engineering education rather than research takes center stage, 4) assist newer programs using knowledge gained by more mature programs, and refresh the ideas of established programs, 5) enhance the likelihood that minority serving institutions will adopt biomedical engineering as a major, and 6) discuss the core curricula and areas of specialization that will enable biomedical engineering students to best prepare for industry, medicine, or graduate study. ? ?
STATEMENT (provided by applicant): Biomedical engineers are an important part of the workforce that contributes to advances in the increasingly technological field of healthcare in the US and abroad. This conference is designed to foster progress in biomedical engineering education at the undergraduate level. The conference will bring together individuals from academia and industry to discuss the ways in which students can be best prepared with the content knowledge, skills and attitudes to be innovative and adaptive in biomedical engineering careers. ? ? ?