Personalized Learning Plan
The concept of a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) is to tailor educational experiences to meet individual needs. Courses are selected in consultation with the student's supervisor, dissertation committee, and the graduate advisor to ensure adequate breadth and depth.
26 credit hours are required (approximately 8 technical 3-credit hour courses + 2 seminar 1-credit hour courses). All eight of the technical courses must be graduate level and taken for a letter grade.
Five of the eight technical courses (3-credits each, 15 credits total) MUST meet the following requirements:
- Biological or Clinical Sciences
- Basic or Applied Mathematics
- To meet this requirement, a statistics course is encouraged, but another mathematics topic may be approved in some circumstances.
- Students must take a course from three of the four technical areas below:
- Technical Area 1: Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation
- Technical Area 2: Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering
- Technical Area 3: Computational Biomedical Engineering
- Technical Area 4: Biomechanics
- One technical course may be substituted with one approved graduate-level professional development course. All coursework must be approved by the Graduate Advisor in advance.
- A list of courses that count toward these areas can be found on UT Box here. Please note: this is not an exhaustive list and other courses are available to meet these requirements.
- Please note this list is not exhaustive–if you find another course that you wish to count toward the above requirements, please send the course name and number to Dr. Andrew Dunn, the Graduate Adviser, for request to count prior to taking the course. A syllabus for the course may also be requested.
- BME 197S Seminar Series: You are required to take at least 2 semesters of 197S before graduation, presumably during your first two semesters. You are encouraged to attend the seminar series every semester, whether you are officially enrolled or not.
Program of Work
The Program of Work is a form students complete to report their coursework status as they complete milestones such as the Qualifying Exam, Dissertation Proposal, and Final Oral Defense.
All versions of the Program of Work for the MS and PhD programs can be found on UT Box at https://utexas.box.com/v/BMEGradForms. The Box folder can also be accessed on the Current Student Resources and Forms page on the BME graduate program website, under the "Forms" section heading.
Students are to complete the Program of Work that corresponds with their respective degree program and year of entry into the graduate program.
Imaging Science and Informatics Portfolio Program
The overarching theme of this program is to train "comprehensive imaging scientists" in the skills necessary to identify clinically relevant problems. Topics include: developing instrumentation, sensors, and contrast agents to form images appropriate for the problem; and analyzing the resulting imaging data using signal processing, mathematical modeling, visualizations, and informatics techniques to improve the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of human diseases.
The basic requirement to complete this portfolio program is 12 hours of coursework (4 courses), which provide the requisite core knowledge for an imaging scientist.
- BME 381J.3 Biomedical Imaging Modalities (3 credit hours)
- Elective in Image Processing (3 credit hours)
- Elective in Modeling and Visualization (3 credit hours)
- Elective in Data Mining and Informatics (3 credit hours)
Some, but not necessarily all, of these courses may count toward your degree requirements as well. Additionally, optional coursework, seminars, and externship opportunities are available to portfolio students. If you are interested in completing the Imaging Science and Informatics Portfolio Program, please contact the Graduate Program Coordinator.
Students who complete the portfolio program must submit a Portfolio Completion Form to the Graduate School to have the portfolio added to their transcript.
