Spotlight: Biomedical Engineering
Stephie is a biomedical engineering major (BME) on a pre-MD/PhD track. She is very involved on campus, both in engineering and outside of engineering. Within engineering, she is an undergraduate researcher in the Fischbach Lab, where she models breast cancer spreading to bone, the President of Engineers for a Sustainable World project team, a board member of Tau Beta Pi, and a tutor for freshmen and sophomore engineering courses. Outside of engineering, she is a member of Rise Dance Group and a Leadership Assistant with PCAT, a local patient-oriented hospital volunteering program. Stephie is from West Bloomfield, Michigan, and her favorite spot on campus is Beebe Lake for its lovely running trail!
BME is one of the most versatile majors, allowing you to pursue medical and health care related interests as well as design interests outside the classroom. I love BME for the close-knit community I have with my BME class and for the outstanding lab training that exists within the BME curriculum. Perhaps most importantly, I came to Cornell because I was very intrigued by the BME research, and can say that partaking in the incredible and impactful research done by BME faculty has fully exceeded my expectations.
For students pursuing BME, the post-graduation options are extensive. BME complements the pre-med curriculum well with minimal extra classes, and provides a wealth of research opportunities for students looking to go to graduate school. BME also prepares you well for a career at any biomedical company, ranging from pharmaceutical companies to software firms to startups, and is also compatible with consulting. Since BME pulls from so many other fields (electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, etc.) it provides broad exposure and a pathway to a variety of different careers in industry, academia, and medicine.
—Stephie, biomedical engineering