A Sophomore's Guide to BME

by Chris Westphal

Prior to the first day of BME design:

1. At the beginning of the semester you'll receive an email from Professor Tompkins. He will provide a list of available projects. Review the projects listed and note the top three that interest you most. You may want to consider choosing projects that you know something about for your very first design project.

2. Go to http://courses.engr.wisc.edu/ecow/get/bme/200/webster/ and browse through all the links to get a feel of the course setup. You'll need to be familiar with this website.

3. Use The Facebook to see who’s in your class in order to get an idea of who you know.

4. Know your end goal. Why do you want to be a BME student? Was it tough to get in so you wanted the challenge? Want to design something that will help people? Doing it as your pre-med track? This will help you throughout your college career. If you plan on going to medical school, you may want to consider choosing a variety of projects over your six semesters. This will provide you with a wide array of experiences. If you plan on going into industry or graduate school, you may want to consider choosing projects of a similar type for your six semesters of BME design. For example, a student emphasizing biomedical electronics may choose electronics projects as opposed to biomechanics or medical imaging projects.

5. Buy a Computation Notebook. It is very useful to have a spiral-bound one that looks like this. This is required for the course.

First Day of BME design:

1. Try to attend the BME sophomore social. On the first day of design, find someone you met from the sophomore social. Be friendly. If you don’t know anybody, be friendly and be open.

2. Try to get in a group of half guys, half girls. It's a good learning experience.

3. Use the course web page to find the answers to your questions or use the 300 level students in your team to help you out. They will be more than willing to help you get off on the right foot. The notebook you create this semester will be your guide for next semester’s notebook, so make it thorough.

First Week:

1. Every time you spend time on your design course, whether it be on your own or in a meeting, make sure you log an entry into your design notebook. It's very difficult to catch up later.

2. Understand the role you’re assigned in the group. If you’re a BWIG, BSAC, Communicator, or Leader, it is important to have a strong understanding of what is expected of you. If you don’t know, always ask.

First Month:

1. Go to as many BMES events as possible in order to get to know people and build a network. College is about building a network of friends and advisors; people who can help you out, as well as help out.

First Semester:

1. In your first semester you’ll be one of three rookies in a six member team. It is important to learn as much as possible from each individual, especially, the “experienced” individuals! Learn each position. What do they do and how do they do it? When and why do they do it? Knowing a lot about each position will make you a more valuable team player, as well as help you perform better in the second semester when it’s four rookies in a team.

First Year:

1. For the first few projects, consider projects you know the most about. That way, you can spend the majority of your time learning the design process and writing your reports the right way the first time. As you continue, the reports will become almost natural, allowing you to pick projects that interest you and can learn from. Always picking the “easy” projects may get you a good grade, but your experience will be compensated as a result. There ARE opportunities to get patents in these design courses, so these design projects truly involve real world problems. Also, students in the past have published scientific papers for their design projects. Make use of these design projects; they'll change your life!

A Note:

If you plan on looking for an internship or co-op through ECS, do not tell employers that your most valuable asset/experience is BME design. You are indeed competing with your fellow BME students who may all say the exact same thing. Therefore, having experience in BME design is not unique at this university.

Consider getting involved in a research project. BME students can work in virtually any lab on campus, so consult any of the people in the BMES Research Database. Consider getting involved with BMES or another student organization. Become an officer. Help coordinate a substantial volunteer program. Do something to make yourself unique! Having experiences like these will definitely attract employers.