The following policies apply, in addition to the regulations of the
Graduate School,
with which students should be thoroughly familiar.
A summary of the applicable
Graduate School
regulations may be found on the
Graduate School
website.
These policies apply to all current and newly admitted graduate students in the
Department of Biomedical Engineering
TO SIGN UP for the Spring 2009 Qualifying Exam, please use this registration form.
- All students wishing to be a Ph.D. candidate in
Biomedical Engineering
must successfully pass the
Biomedical Engineering
Qualifying Examination. The purpose for the examination is to determine the student's potential for success in attaining the Ph.D. Students, under consultation with their academic advisor, are encouraged to take the examination as soon as possible.
- Students must satisfy the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination requirements, no later than the fourth semester in residence as a full-time graduate student in the Department of
Biomedical Engineering.
A student must complete at least one semester of full-time graduate course work to be eligible to take the examination.
- The Ph.D. Qualifying Examination will be offered twice annually, approximately the first and second week in November, and the first and second week in April. An announcement will be issued by the
biomedical engineering
office six weeks prior to the date of the examination. Students wishing to take the examination shall register for the exam in the
Student Services office, located in 3182 Mechanical Engineering Building, at least four weeks prior to the first date of offering. If you have any questions about the exam, please contact Pamela Peterson in the Student Services office, or email here at prpeters@engr.wisc.edu.
- The Ph.D. Qualifying Examination is a general examination that places emphasis on a student's ability to reason, formulate and solve problems, and apply basic engineering and analytical skills. Special emphasis is placed on problem solving relative to the student's area of specialization.
Students are evaluated in Engineering Physiology, plus three biomedical engineering core areas. The following core areas are currently offered:
- Biomaterials
- Biomechanics
- Biomedical Instrumentation
- Biomedical Imaging
Additional core areas may be added and eliminated.
- The Ph.D. Qualifying Examination consists of five 30 minute one-on-one oral tests covering material that the examiner feels is appropriate for measuring the student's ability to succeed as a Ph.D. student and biomedical engineering researcher. Two tests are taken in the student's chosen core area of specialization (i.e. Biomaterials, Biomechanics, Biomedical Instrumentation, or Biomedical Imaging). Two tests evaluate two additional biomedical engineering core areas chosen by the student. A fifth exam concentrates on testing the student's knowledge of Engineering Physiology.
- The Graduate Committee Chair will oversee the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination. The five examining
Biomedical Engineering
professors are selected by the
Biomedical Engineering
Graduate Committee for each student. Students must contact their assigned examiners and arrange convenient times for taking the various parts of the exam.
- Upon completing each oral exam, the examining professor documents the student's performance in writing and assigns a grade of FAIL (0), MARGINAL PASS (1), or PASS (2). Each examining faculty member reports the grades to the
Biomedical Engineering
Office no later than one-week after the examination is administered.
- The
Biomedical Engineering
Faculty Committee will review the grades at the next scheduled faculty meeting to evaluate the student's performance and recommend action to the Department Chair. Students will receive written notification when they have satisfied all of the Ph.D. qualifying examination requirements. The student may retake the entire exam only once.
