The panel for the 14th International Summer School on Biocomplexity, Biodesign and Bioinnovation: Gene to System was held on June 21th. Summer school students and faculty discussed a variety of topics that ranged from aspects related to graduate studies in BME to the impact of the summer school itself to different career options and the process of securing job in academia and industry.

Student participants mentioned that they believe depth and breadth are both important concepts for biomedical engineers to keep in mind, and that many times departments have a lot of breadth but not very much depth. One reason graduate students chose to go to graduate school is to gain more depth in a particular subfield of biomedical engineering. They thought it is important for future BMEs to gain depth in a certain part of BME that is particularly exciting to them - maybe by adding on a minor or by taking classes in different departments. 


Dr. Brennan spoke about how BME is often cited as one of the fastest growing fields in the country, but companies often won't hire BMEs because they want "real" engineers. He suggested that we focus on the engineering side of BME a little bit more and try to develop a foundational engineering skill set so that we can market ourselves more as engineers and add the bio part on later. He also spoke about the concept of synergy, which is important for biomedical engineers because when we finish school and go on to have our careers we will often be working in teams of people and each person will be expected to bring their own particular skill set to the table.