Overview

At the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, we are changing the biomedical engineering field through education and innovative research.

Biomedical Engineering (BME) is a discipline that advances engineering, biology and medical knowledge to improve healthcare and healthcare delivery through cross-disciplinary activities integrating the engineering sciences with biological sciences and clinical practice. Students work in the development of new devices, algorithms, processes and systems that advance biology and medicine and improve medical training and healthcare delivery.

WHO WE ARE

Mission, Vision & Goals

Mission

To be the premier source of scientific discoveries and of well-educated biomedical engineers, fostering strong academic, industrial and clinical ties, and achieving significant healthcare impact.

Vision

To improve quality of life through pioneering scientific discoveries and their translation, and the education of future leaders in the medical device and biotechnology fields. From 1998-2012, we moved Purdue from having no formal academic programs in biomedical engineering to one with a preeminent and highly visible Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering with hundreds of top students, the finest faculty, ground-breaking research, cutting-edge facilities, and strategic partnerships.

The Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, with hundreds of top students, ground-breaking research, cutting-edge facilities and strategic partnerships is ready to take the next giant leap in improving lives.

Goals

  • Continue to grow an outstanding, diverse, and research-intensive faculty through strategic recruitment;
  • Expand and enhance the curriculum and student body of our educational programs;
  • Broaden our research programs and capabilities, and amplify their industrial and clinical impact through extramural partnerships and entrepreneurship; and
  • Heighten the visibility and recognition of all of our efforts.

Two locations, one Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. 

The Indianapolis Campus
The Indianapolis campus provides cutting-edge facilities and an extraordinary learning environment in an urban setting. The campus is a short walk from four hospitals in Indianapolis, allowing students to frequently partner with or shadow physicians from these facilities.
The West Lafayette Campus
The West Lafayette campus is a rural, sprawling area, stretching nearly 2,500 acres. The Martin Jischke Hall of Biomedical Engineering, located in Purdue’s Discovery Park, was designed to provide an innovative environment for interdisciplinary research and learning.

Both campuses are known for having a close, connected BME community.

Our History

Professor Leslie Geddes in classroom with student Purdue established a biomedical engineering center in 1974 with a then-anonymous gift from Purdue Trustee William A. Hillenbrand. Grace Showalter endowed a distinguished professorship in biomedical engineering. These two gifts made it possible to recruit world-renowned engineer and scientist Dr. Leslie A. Geddes and a team of researchers to create the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center.

Leslie Geddes, Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, invented the automatic implantable defibrillator--It was the first of many innovations by the Weldon School that have helped millions of patients worldwide.

On the former Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus, the Indiana University Schools of Dentistry and Medicine fostered many successful BME research collaborations with Purdue University faculty. In 1990, the Biomechanics and Biomaterials Research Center (BBRC) was founded to promote multidisciplinary, inter-institutional research that crosses the traditional division between biomechanics and dentistry/medicine.

This strong history of collaborative research and development laid the foundation for our BME program as a joint effort of Purdue and Indiana Universities. Thus, in 1995 we embarked upon a period of unification and expansion of BME training and research activities to provide an enhanced educational program that leverages the complementary strengths of the two institutions.

By 2004, the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center had grown into the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering building a new facility in Discovery Park in 2006 and graduating the first undergraduate class in 2007.

In July 2024, the Biomedical Engineering department of Purdue University in Indianapolis, officially became part of the Weldon School family.