Bioengineering, BS
Introduction
Please click here to see Bioengineering department information.
The undergraduate program at CU Denver is a highly rigorous program instilling competencies in biomedical science, engineering, and mathematics and biomedical design, while emphasizing the professional competencies of leadership, communication, presentation and critical problem solving. Our mission is to improve human health through the application of engineering principles, ideas, methods, and inventions to solve important clinical problems. Bioengineering is a highly interdisciplinary field that brings together:
- engineering, science, and mathematics
- biological, chemical, and physical sciences
- clinical medicine
The undergraduate bioengineering program provides training at both the CU Denver campus and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
Graduates of the undergraduate program in bioengineering are expected to attain at least one of the following objectives within a few years after graduation:
- Be employed as a professional in the biomedical engineering field or related industry using knowledge and skills obtained in the program.
- Be progressing toward an advanced degree in:
- health sciences or medical school
- graduate school
- business or law school, or other advanced professional programs.
Program Educational Objectives (PEOs) can be found on the department's website.
Program Delivery
- This is an on-campus program.
- Upper-division major courses will be taught at the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Declaring This Major
- Click here to go to information about declaring a major.
- Students can be admitted to the bioengineering major by meeting the incoming freshmen, transfer and Intra-University Transfer (IUT) Admissions guidelines.
General Requirements
To earn a degree, students must satisfy all requirements in each of the three areas below, in addition to their individual major requirements.
- CU Denver General Graduation Requirements
- CU Denver Core Curriculum
- College of Engineering, Design and Computing Graduation Requirements
- Click here for information about Academic Policies
Program Requirements
The bioengineering major requirements include three different types of courses: downtown courses, upper-division bioengineering courses, and technical electives.
Downtown Courses; Students must complete all 58 credits of math, biology, chemistry, physics and lower-division bioengineering requirements with a C- or higher prior to transitioning to the Anschutz Medical Campus. Credit for some of these courses may be achieved through high school Advanced Placement (AP) course work and exams, International Baccalaureate (IB) coursework and exams, as well as transfer credit.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics | ||
| MATH 1401 | Calculus I | 4 |
| MATH 2411 | Calculus II | 4 |
| MATH 2421 | Calculus III | 4 |
| MATH 3195 | Linear Algebra and Differential Equations | 4 |
| Biology | ||
| BIOL 2010 | Organisms to Ecosystems (Gen Bio) | 3 |
| BIOL 2011 | Organisms to Ecosystems Lab (Gen Bio) | 1 |
| BIOL 2020 | Molecules to Cells (Gen Bio) | 3 |
| BIOL 2021 | Molecules to Cells Lab (Gen Bio) | 1 |
| Chemistry | ||
| CHEM 2031 | General Chemistry I | 3 |
| CHEM 2038 | General Chemistry Laboratory I | 1 |
| CHEM 2061 | General Chemistry II | 3 |
| CHEM 2068 | General Chemistry Laboratory II | 2 |
| CHEM 3411 | Organic Chemistry I | 4 |
| CHEM 3418 | Organic Chemistry Lab I | 1 |
| Physics | ||
| PHYS 2311 | General Physics I: Calculus-Based | 4 |
| PHYS 2321 | Intro Experimental Phys Lab I | 1 |
| PHYS 2331 | General Physics II: Calculus-Based | 4 |
| PHYS 2341 | Intro Experimental Phys Lab II | 1 |
| Lower-Division Bioengineering Courses | ||
| BIOE 1010 | Bioengineering Design and Prototyping I | 3 |
| ENGR 1200 | Fundamentals of Engineering Design Innovation | 3 |
| ENGR 1100 | Fundamentals of Computational Innovation | 3 |
| BIOE 2020 | Introduction to Computational Methods for Bioengineers | 2 |
| Upper-Division Bioengineering 1 | ||
| BIOE 3010 | Bioinstrumentation | 3 |
| BIOE 3020 | Introduction to Biomechanical Analysis | 3 |
| BIOE 3030 | Introduction to Biomaterials | 3 |
| BIOE 3040 | Physiology for Bioengineering | 3 |
| BIOE 3050 | Systems Biology | 3 |
| BIOE 3060 | Biostatistics, Measurement and Analysis | 3 |
| BIOE 3070 | Bioengineering Lab I | 3 |
| BIOE 3071 | Bioengineering Lab II | 3 |
| BIOE 3090 | Introduction to BioDesign | 3 |
| BIOE 4035 | Undergraduate BioDesign II | 3 |
| BIOE 4045 | BioDesign III | 3 |
| Bioengineering Technical Electives | ||
| Select 12 credit hours | 12 | |
| Total Hours | 104 | |
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Upper-division major classes will be taught at the Anschutz Medical Campus. These classes build upon the downtown coursework and provide the next level of instruction in bioengineering. Student can enroll in these courses once they have completed the downtown courses with a C- or higher and are in good academic standing.
Bioengineering Technical Electives Guidelines
Bioengineering students are required to take 12 credit hours of technical electives to complete their undergraduate degree. Technical electives are upper-division (3000 or 4000-level) or graduate (5000+) bioengineering courses taken after matriculation to the pre-bioengineering major. Students are responsible for meeting all prerequisites for technical electives.
Students may select any combination of approved BIOE courses for technical electives or by petition, which requires approval from the Bioengineering Undergraduate Affairs Committee. Petitions are required for selecting a BIOE course not currently approved or to take more than three credit hours of non-bioengineering courses.
Option I - Approved Technical Electives
Students may select any combination of approved Bioengineering (BIOE) courses and up to three credit hours of non-bioengineering courses.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX or approved non BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
BS/MS students are required to take BIOE 5010 Cell and Molecular Biology for Bioengineers or BIOE 5011 Systems Physiology for Bioengineers and BIOE 5020 Analytics and Machine Learning in Bioengineering as 6 of the 12 credits that apply as Technical Electives and MS coursework.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOE 5010 | Cell and Molecular Biology for Bioengineers | 3 |
| or BIOE 5011 | Systems Physiology for Bioengineers | |
| BIOE 5020 | Analytics and Machine Learning in Bioengineering | 3 |
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX or approved non-BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
Option II - Petition Courses
Students may petition to have up to 6 credit hours of non-bioengineering courses (upper division) for technical electives. (CHEM, MATH, BIOL, MECH, ELEC).
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
| BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
| Non-BIOE 4XXX-5XXX | 3 | |
| Non-BIOE 4XXX-5XXX (must petition a second non-BIOE course) | 3 | |
Students may also petition to have a non-bioengineering course added to the approved list by submitting a current syllabus as part of the petition process.
Approved Bioengineering Technical Electives
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOE 4039/5039 | Mechatronics and Embedded Systems (Fall) | 3 |
| BIOE 4053/5053 | Optics and Microscopy in Biomedical Research (Spring) | 3 |
| BIOE 4054 | Regulatory Affairs (Fall) | 3 |
| or BIOE 5054 | Regulatory Affairs | |
| BIOE 4057/5057 | Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology (Fall) | 3 |
| BIOE 4058 | Intro to Design, Disability, and Aging | 3 |
| BIOE 4063/5063 | 3D Modeling for Bioengineers (Fall) | 3 |
| BIOE 4064/5064 | Advanced MatLab For Bioengineers And Life Scientists (Fall) | 3 |
| BIOE 4067/5067 | Human Factors and Usability Testing for Bioengineers (Spring) | 3 |
| BIOE 4068/5068 | Introduction to Medical Imaging | 3 |
| BIOE 4069/5069 | Advanced Biomechanics for Undergraduates (Fall) | 3 |
| BIOE 4073/5073 | Neural Interfaces and Bionic Limbs | 3 |
| BIOE 4083/5083 | Polymers in Biomedical Applications (Spring) | 3 |
| BIOE 4085 | Tissue Engineering | 3 |
| BIOE 4420 | Special Topics in Bioengineering | 1-3 |
Special Topics
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOE 4420/5420 | Special Topics in Bioengineering (Medical Device Life Cycle (Spring)) | 1-3 |
| BIOE 4420/5420 | Special Topics in Bioengineering (Bioengineering Design Hack for Global Health (Winterim)) | 1-3 |
Note: Special Topics offerings can change each semester. Review Course offerings on UCD Access for current offerings. All BIOE 4420 Special Topics in Bioengineering/BIOE 5420 Special Topics in Bioengineering courses can apply towards Technical Electives.
Internship/Independent Study/Research
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOE 3939 | Undergraduate Internship | 1-6 |
| BIOE 4840 | Independent Study in Bioengineering | 1-6 |
| BIOE 4929 | Undergraduate Research Project 1 | 1-6 |
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Student can utilize no more than 3 credits hours of combined research and independent study towards technical electives.
Graduate
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOE 5010 | Cell and Molecular Biology for Bioengineers (Fall) | 3 |
| BIOE 5011 | Systems Physiology for Bioengineers (Spring) | 3 |
| BIOE 5020 | Analytics and Machine Learning in Bioengineering (Fall) 1 | 3 |
| BIOE 5021 | Numerical Methods for Engineering Analysis (Spring) | 3 |
| BIOE 5053 | Optics & Microscopy in Biomedical Research | 3 |
| BIOE 5057 | Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology | 3 |
| BIOE 5063 | 3D Modeling for Bioengineers | 3 |
| BIOE 5067 | Human Factors and Usability Testing for Bioengineers | 3 |
| BIOE 5069 | Advanced Biomechanics for Graduates | 3 |
| BIOE 5074 | Introduction to Laboratory Animal Research | 3 |
| BIOE 5083 | Polymers in Biomedical Applications | 3 |
| BIOE 5420 | Special Topics in Bioengineering (Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (Fall)) | 1-6 |
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Required for BS/MS students. Students can choose to take BIOE 5010 Cell and Molecular Biology for Bioengineers or BIOE 5011 Systems Physiology for Bioengineers.
Approved Non-Bioengineering Technical Electives
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 3832 | General Genetics | 3 |
| BIOL 3611 | General Cell Biology | 3 |
| BIOL 3763 | Biostatistics | 4 |
| BIOL 4644 | Advanced Human Anatomy Laboratory | 2 |
| BIOL 5024 | Introduction to Biotechnology | 3 |
| CHEM 3810 | Biochemistry | 4 |
| CHEM 3421 | Organic Chemistry II | 4 |
| CHEM 4810 | General Biochemistry I | 3 |
| CSCI 3412 | Algorithms | 3 |
| CSCI 3508 | Introduction to Software Engineering | 3 |
| CSCI 4287 | Embedded Systems Programming | 3 |
| ELEC 3030 | Electric Circuits and Systems | 3 |
| MATH 4650 | Numerical Analysis I | 3 |
| MECH 4020 | Biomechanics | 3 |
| MECH 4025 | Advanced Biomechanics | 3 |
| MECH 4175 | Finite Element Analysis in Machine Design | 3 |
| PHYS 3120 | Methods of Mathematical Physics | 3 |
| PHYS 4980 | Advanced Physics Topics | 1-3 |
To review the Degree Map for this program, please visit our website.