Biomedical Engineering

Since its founding more than 60 years ago, the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) has led the nation in developing biomedical engineering as a distinct and groundbreaking discipline.

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More detailed requirements for students enrolling at JHU for Fall 2026 will be available on this page when the JHU e-Catalogue is published in July.

Overview

The Department of Biomedical Engineering has been setting the bar for BME undergraduate education and research for 60 years. Consistently ranked as the #1 undergraduate program in the nation, we continue to lead the way through a curriculum that emphasizes learning by practice, giving students meaningful opportunities to collaborate with faculty and solve real-world biomedical engineering problems.

Our faculty are defining the field, forging new disciplines that have immense potential to transform human health and impact patient lives worldwide. Close partnership with clinical collaborators provides a strong foundation for translating advances from the lab to first clinical use.

As an undergraduate student in our program, you will work alongside our pioneering faculty and actively contribute to our mission of discovery, innovation, and translational research that improves patient care at a broad scale. Through project-based learning, research experiences, design opportunities, clinical exposure, and more, you will be driving technical innovation from your first day of freshman year through graduation.

Programs

BS in Biomedical Engineering

Research and Design

Over the course of their undergraduate careers, more than 95% of BME students pursue research projects in one of 3,000 basic science, engineering, and clinical laboratories across the university.

Our commitment to practical application is led by our design initiatives. Beginning 25 years ago with the first BME Undergraduate Design Team program of its kind, our design programs have grown to include more than 50 teams and 300 students each year. Working side-by-side with our leading scientists, engineers, and clinicians, students build and apply technologies that will advance medical knowledge and improve the healthcare delivery.

Students seek opportunities that reflect their interests and are tailored to their career goals, contributing to projects such as engineering stem cells for heart repair, studying genetic drivers of diseases like glaucoma and Alzheimer’s, and developing new approaches to medical imaging. Others apply data science and machine learning to improve diagnostic tools and evaluate clinical outcomes. These experiences help uur students gain a level of expertise that extends far beyond the classroom in focus areas like:

Biomedical Data Science:

Developing methods to analyze large-scale biomedical datasets, shedding new light on the function of living systems.

Computational Medicine:

Creating patient-specific, quantitative models that can be used in the clinic to understand, diagnose, and treat disease.

Genomics and Systems Biology:

Pioneering new technologies to understand how the interactions between molecules, cells, tissues, and organs maintain health and contribute to disease.

Imaging and Medical Devices:

Designing new imaging technologies to improve disease diagnosis and guide clinical procedures.

Immunoengineering:

Advancing immunoengineering approaches to augment tissue regeneration and to treat cancer and other diseases.

Neuroengineering:

Building technologies to modulate nervous system function for improved screening, diagnosis, prognosis, rehabilitation, and repair.

Translational Cell and Tissue Engineering:

Pioneering approaches to augment tissue regeneration and treat injury and disease.

After Graduation

With an interdisciplinary foundation and in-depth learning in specialized focus areas, Hopkins BME graduates are uniquely prepared to be leaders in academia, medicine, and entrepreneurship. Our graduates go on to create successful careers in hospitals, universities, research labs, and government agencies; and drive innovation in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices industries across the United States and abroad.

Through internships, research, and design projects, our students are making an impact—in the past five years, they have generated millions of dollars in funding, launched more than one dozen startup companies, and won hundreds of national awards. This legacy of success makes Hopkins BME students some of the most sought-after candidates by the top employers in the field.

Activities

The JHU Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Student Chapter is committed to serving the undergraduate BME community professionally, socially, and academically. This student-led group hosts a variety of events and seminars to connect BME undergraduates with faculty members and professional leaders, to provide resources that allow students to excel, and promote engagement with the local Baltimore community.

To help new BME students adjust to the social and academic environment at Hopkins, BMES hosts a wide array of events during the fall semester, including social gatherings, academic advising sessions, and mentorship groups.

BME students participate in a wide range of clubs across the engineering school and beyond. See the full list of engineering clubs at JHU.

Getting Started

Regardless of focus area, all BME students complete the same foundations in math, science and programming. In the first year, BME students should complete the First Year Seminar: Design Cornerstone and a Gateway Computing (either python or java) course. These two courses can be taken in either fall or spring semester of your first year.

There are a multitude of pathways through the BME undergraduate curriculum. The sample schedules provided show just a few of these permutations. We recommend working with your BME faculty mentor and WSE academic advisor to select the pathway that is right for you. This should be based on your goals in BME and outside BME (double majors or minors), your incoming AP scores, your external college credits, your co-curricular commitments and more!

BS Biomedical Engineering

Fall Semester

Course

Credits

AS.030.101

3

AS.030.105

1

AS.110.108* (FA2 Requirement)

4

AS.171.101**

4

AS.173.111

1

EN.500.113 or 112 (FA2 Computing and Data Science Requirement, or take EN.501.124)

3

EN.580.111 (FA5 Foundational Course in Ethical Reflection)

2

Total

18

Spring Semester

Course

Credits

AS.030.102

3

AS.030.106

1

AS.110.109 (FA2 Requirement)

4

AS.171.102

4

AS.173.112

1

EN.501.124 (or take EN.500.113 or EN.500.112)

2

EN.580.151

2

Total

17

* Select a math course according to your level of preparation as indicated by AP/IB/GCE or other exam score and/or the JHU Math Placement Process result. See your placement recommendations in the placement site in Canvas after you complete the process.

BME students who plan to double major are encouraged to take the combined Linear Algebra & Differential Equations course (553.291). Students planning to double major in Applied Mathematics and Statistics should plan to take the separate Linear Algebra and Differential Equations course.

** Physics I can be challenging for students without a solid foundation in Calculus I (even though Calculus I is listed as a co-req in the course description).

Note that Physics I may be moved to the spring semester with the understanding that some of the BME sophomore and junior-year courses can be shifted to the junior and senior year without adding additional time to complete the degree.

Additional Information

To learn more about the Department of Biomedical Engineering, visit bme.jhu.edu.

Biomedical Engineering Website