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Note: This is the 2010–2011 edition of the eCalendar. Update the year in your browser's URL bar for the most recent version of this page, or click here to jump to the newest eCalendar.
Note: This is the 2010–2011 edition of the eCalendar. Update the year in your browser's URL bar for the most recent version of this page, or click here to jump to the newest eCalendar.
Note: open to all students in the Faculty of Engineering (including B.S.E. students).
The Biomedical Engineering Minor allows access to courses in basic life sciences and is intended to expose students to the interdisciplinary tools used in biomedicine.
To complete this minor, students must obtain a grade of C or better in all approved courses and satisfy the requirements of both the major program and the minor.
Students considering this minor should contact Prof. R. Leask (Room 4120, Wong Building) or Prof. R. Mongrain (Room 369, Macdonald Engineering Building).
Total minor credit weight: 21-25 credits.
3-7 credits
One or two courses from the following list (equivalents can be approved):
Anatomy & Cell Biology : An introductory course describing the biochemistry and molecular biology of selected key functions of animal cells, including: gene expression; mitochondrial production of metabolic energy; cellular communication with the extra-cellular environment; and regulation of cell division.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Duchaine, Thomas; Pause, Arnim; Reinhardt, Dieter (Winter)
Biochemistry : An introductory course describing the biochemistry and molecular biology of selected key functions of animal cells, including: gene expression; mitochondrial production of metabolic energy; cellular communication with the extra-cellular environment; and regulation of cell division.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Duchaine, Thomas; Pause, Arnim; Reinhardt, Dieter (Winter)
Biology (Sci) : The physical and chemical properties of the cell and its components in relation to their structure and function. Topics include: protein structure, enzymes and enzyme kinetics; nucleic acid replication, transcription and translation; the genetic code, mutation, recombination, and regulation of gene expression.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Roy, Richard D W; Brown, Gregory G; Fagotto, Francesco; Zetka, Monique (Fall)
Biology (Sci) : This course introduces the student to our modern understanding of cells and how they work. Major topics to be covered include: photosynthesis, energy metabolism and metabolic integration; plasma membrane including secretion, endocytosis and contact mediated interactions between cells; cytoskeleton including cell and organelle movement; the nervous system; hormone signaling; the cell cycle.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Levine, Robert; Hewitt, Kathryn; Brouhard, Gary (Winter)
Chemistry : A survey of reactions of aliphatic and aromatic compounds including modern concepts of bonding, mechanisms, conformational analysis, and stereochemistry.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011, Summer 2011
Instructors: Daoust, Michel; Tsantrizos, Youla S; Moitessier, Nicolas (Fall) Daoust, Michel; Fenster, Ariel; Schirrmacher, Ralf (Winter) Daoust, Michel; Fenster, Ariel (Summer)
Physiology : Physiology of body fluids, blood, nerve and muscle, peripheral nerves, central nervous system, special senses, autonomic nervous system, defense mechanisms.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Physiology : Physiology of the cardiovascular, respiratory, excretory, endocrine, and digestive systems; organic and energy metabolism; nutrition; exercise and environmental stress.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Physiology : Physiology of body fluids, blood, body defense mechanisms, muscle, peripheral, central, and autonomic nervous systems.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Wechsler, Ann; Gold, Phil; Cook, Erik (Fall)
Physiology : Physiology of cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, endocrine and renal systems.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: White, John H; Wechsler, Ann; Lauzon, Anne-Marie (Winter)
12 credits from the following:
Students must select 6 credits from courses outside their department and at least one BMDE course. These BMDE courses are best taken near the end of the program, when prerequisites are satisfied.
Biomedical Engineering : Application of the principles of engineering, physical, and biological sciences to modify and create cells and tissues for therapeutic applications will be discussed, as well as the industrial perspective and related ethical issues.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Prakash, Satya (Winter)
Physiology : In-depth presentation of experimental results and hypotheses on cellular communication in the nervous system and the endocrine system.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Cooper, Ellis; Haghighi, Ali (Fall)
Physiology : In-depth presentation of experimental results and hypotheses underlying our current understanding of topics in renal, respiratory and cardiovascular functions explored beyond the introductory level.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Hanrahan, John W; Mortola, Jacopo; Magder, Sheldon A (Winter)
Physiology : In-depth presentation of experimental results and hypotheses underlying our current understanding of topics in immunology, blood and fluids, and gastrointestinal physiology.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Martinez Trujillo, Julio; Blank, Volker Manfred; Jones, Russell (Winter)
Physiology : Physiological, bioengineering, chemical and clinical aspects of artificial organs including basic principles and physiopathology of organ failure. Examples: oxygenator, cardiac support, vascular substitutes, cardiac pacemaker, biomaterials and tissue engineering, biocompatibility.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Physiology : Physiology, biotechnology, chemistry and biomedical application of artificial cells, blood substitutes, immobilized enzymes, microorganisms and cells, hemoperfusion, artificial kidneys, and drug delivery systems. PHGY 517 and PHGY 518 when taken together, will give a complete picture of this field. However, the student can select one of these.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Chang, Thomas Ming Swi; Prakash, Satya (Fall)
Anatomy & Cell Biology : An intensive study of the processes of protein secretion and cell membrane biogenesis. Emphasis on morphological aspects of the above processes, and on the major techniques which have provided experimental evidence, namely, subcellular fractionation, cytochemistry and quantitative electron microscope radioautography.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Bedford, Fiona Kay; McPherson, Peter Scott; Barker, Philip A (Fall)
Anatomy & Cell Biology : An integrated treatment of the properties of biological membranes and of intracellular signaling, including the major role that membranes play in transducing and integrating cellular regulatory signals. Biological membrane organization and dynamics; membrane transport; membrane receptors and their associated effectors; mechanisms of regulation of cell growth, morphology, differentiation and death.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Silvius, John R; Autexier, Chantal; Reinhardt, Dieter (Winter)
Biochemistry : The generation of metabolic energy in higher organisms with an emphasis on its regulation at the molecular, cellular and organ level. Chemical concepts and mechanisms of enzymatic catalysis are also emphasized. Included: selected topics in carbohydrate, lipid and nitrogen metabolism; complex lipids and biological membranes; hormonal signal transduction.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: St-Pierre, Julie; Dostie, Josee; Kiss, Robert (Fall)
Biochemistry : Gene expression from the start of transcription to the synthesis of proteins, their modifications and degradation. Topics covered: purine and pyrimidine metabolism; transcription and its regulation; mRNA processing; translation; targeting of proteins to specific cellular sites; protein glycosylation; protein phosphorylation; protein turn-over; programmed cell death (apoptosis).
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Branton, Philip E; Sonenberg, Nahum; Gehring, Kalle Burgess (Winter)
Biochemistry : An integrated treatment of the properties of biological membranes and of intracellular signaling, including the major role that membranes play in transducing and integrating cellular regulatory signals. Biological membrane organization and dynamics: membrane transport; membrane receptors and their associated effectors; mechanisms of regulation of cell growth, morphology, differentiation and death.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Silvius, John R; Autexier, Chantal; Reinhardt, Dieter (Winter)
Biomedical Engineering : Introduction to major techniques of molecular biology for physical scientists.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Computer Science (Sci) : Programming language design issues and programming paradigms. Binding and scoping, parameter passing, lambda abstraction, data abstraction, type checking. Functional and logic programming.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Pientka, Brigitte (Fall) Doherty, Jesse (Winter)
Computer Science (Sci) : A study of techniques for the design and analysis of algorithms.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Vetta, Adrian Roshan (Fall) Nguyen, The Phuong (Winter)
Computer Science (Sci) : Database Design: conceptual design of databases (e.g., entity-relationship model), relational data model, functional dependencies. Database Manipulation: relational algebra, SQL, database application programming, triggers, access control. Database Implementation: transactions, concurrency control, recovery, query execution and query optimization.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Kemme, Bettina (Winter)
Computer Science (Sci) : Introduction to search methods. Knowledge representation using logic and probability. Planning and decision making under uncertainty. Introduction to machine learning.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Pineau, Joelle (Winter)
Computer Science (Sci) : Application of computer science techniques to problems arising in biology and medicine, techniques for modeling evolution, aligning molecular sequences, predicting structure of a molecule and other problems from computational biology.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Waldispuhl, Jerome (Fall)
Computer Science (Sci) : Belief networks, Utility theory, Markov Decision Processes and Learning Algorithms.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
* Students choose either ANAT 365 or BIOC 458
Biomedical Engineering : Biological and synthetic biomaterials, medical devices, and the issues related to their bioperformance. The physicochemical characteristics of biomaterials in relation to their biocompatibility and sterilization.
Terms: Summer 2011
Instructors: Tabrizian, Maryam (Summer)
Biomedical Engineering : Application of the principles of engineering, physical, and biological sciences to modify and create cells and tissues for therapeutic applications will be discussed, as well as the industrial perspective and related ethical issues.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Prakash, Satya (Winter)
Chemical Engineering : Structure/property relationship for metals, ceramics, polymers and composite materials. Atomic and molecular structure, bonds, electronic band structure and semi-conductors. Order in solids: crystal structure, disorders, solid phases. Mechanical properties and fracture, physico-chemical properties, design. Laboratory exercises.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Meunier, Jean-Luc (Fall)
Electrical Engineering : The course highlights human-computer interaction strategies from an engineering perspective. Topics include user interfaces, novel paradigms in human-computer interaction, affordances, ecological interface design, ubiquitous computing and computer-supported cooperative work. Attention will be paid to issues of safety, usability, and performance.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Cooperstock, Jeremy (Winter)
Mechanical Engineering : Introduction to microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Micromachining techniques (thin-film deposition; lithography; etching; bonding). Microscale mechanical behaviour (deformation and fracture; residual stresses; adhesion; experimental techniques). Materials- and process-selection. Process integration. Design of microdevice components to meet specified performance and reliability targets using realistic manufacturing processes.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Mining & Materials Engineering : Free energy (equilibrium) and kinetic (non-equilibrium) considerations, phase diagrams and TTT diagrams, solid state diffusion, diffusional (nucleation and growth) and shear (martensitic) transformations.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Yue, Stephen; Jung, In-Ho; Paray, Florence (Fall)
Mining & Materials Engineering : Stress-strain behaviour. Elasticity and plasticity of metals, ceramics and polymers. Dislocations theory. Single crystal and polycrystalline slip. Mechanical twinning. Strengthening mechanisms. Process-property and microstructure-property relationships. Notch toughness and fracture mechanics. Failure, fracture and damage accumulation. Fatigue. Creep and creep rupture. Fractography. Design considerations in materials selection.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Paray, Florence; Gauvin, Raynald (Fall)
Physics : Topics include scanning probe microscopy, chemical self-assembly, computer modelling, and microfabrication/micromachining.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Reisner, Walter (Fall)
Biomedical Engineering : The principles and practice of making biological measurements in the laboratory, including theory of linear systems, data sampling, computer interfaces and electronic circuit design.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Wagner, Ross (Fall)
Chemical Engineering : Basic principles of circulation including vascular fluid and solid mechanics, modelling techniques, clinical and experimental methods and the design of cardiovascular devices.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Mechanical Engineering : Single-degree-of-freedom systems; free vibrations; effect of damping; response to harmonic, periodic and arbitrary excitation. Lagrange's equations of motion. Vibrations of multi-degree-of-freedom systems. Continuous systems.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Amabili, Marco (Fall) Vengallatore, Srikar (Winter)
Mechanical Engineering : Modern phenomenological theories of the behaviour of engineering materials. Stress and strain concepts and introduction to constitutive theory. Applications of theory of elasticity and thermoelasticity. Introduction to finite element stress analysis methods.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Hubert, Pascal (Fall) Barthelat, Francois (Winter)
Mechanical Engineering : Fiber-reinforced composites. Stress, strain, and strength of composite laminates and honeycomb structures. Failure modes and failure criteria. Environmental effects. Manufacturing processes. Design of composite structures. Computer modelling of composites. Computer techniques are utilized throughout the course.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Lessard, Larry (Fall)
Mechanical Engineering : The musculoskeletal system; general characteristics and classification of tissues and joints. Biomechanics and clinical problems in orthopaedics. Modelling and force analysis of musculoskeletal systems. Passive and active kinematics. Load-deformation properties of passive connective tissue, passive and stimulated muscle response. Experimental approaches, case studies.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Mechanical Engineering : Basic principles of circulation including vascular fluid and solid mechanics, modelling techniques, clinical and experimental methods and the design of cardiovascular devices.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Mongrain, Rosaire; Leask, Richard L (Winter)
Mining & Materials Engineering : Free energy (equilibrium) and kinetic (non-equilibrium) considerations, phase diagrams and TTT diagrams, solid state diffusion, diffusional (nucleation and growth) and shear (martensitic) transformations.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Yue, Stephen; Jung, In-Ho; Paray, Florence (Fall)
Mining & Materials Engineering : Stress-strain behaviour. Elasticity and plasticity of metals, ceramics and polymers. Dislocations theory. Single crystal and polycrystalline slip. Mechanical twinning. Strengthening mechanisms. Process-property and microstructure-property relationships. Notch toughness and fracture mechanics. Failure, fracture and damage accumulation. Fatigue. Creep and creep rupture. Fractography. Design considerations in materials selection.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Paray, Florence; Gauvin, Raynald (Fall)
* Students choose either CHEE 563 or MECH 563.
Biomedical Engineering : An introduction to the theoretical framework, experimental techniques and analysis procedures available for the quantitative analysis of physiological systems and signals. Lectures plus laboratory work using the Biomedical Engineering computer system. Topics include: amplitude and frequency structure of signals, filtering, sampling, correlation functions, time and frequency-domain descriptions of systems.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Kearney, Robert E (Fall)
Computer Science (Sci) : Programming language design issues and programming paradigms. Binding and scoping, parameter passing, lambda abstraction, data abstraction, type checking. Functional and logic programming.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Pientka, Brigitte (Fall) Doherty, Jesse (Winter)
Computer Science (Sci) : A study of techniques for the design and analysis of algorithms.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Vetta, Adrian Roshan (Fall) Nguyen, The Phuong (Winter)
Computer Science (Sci) : Information Theory. Huffman, arithmetic and dictionary codes. Context Modelling. Lossy compression and quantization. Signal processing. Applications to text, image, speech, audio and video data.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Computer Science (Sci) : Introduction to search methods. Knowledge representation using logic and probability. Planning and decision making under uncertainty. Introduction to machine learning.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Pineau, Joelle (Winter)
Computer Science (Sci) : Biological vision, edge detection, projective geometry and camera modelling, shape from shading and texture, stereo vision, optical flow, motion analysis, object representation, object recognition, graph theoretic methods, high level vision, applications.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Langer, Michael (Fall)
Electrical Engineering : Elementary continuous and discrete-time signals, impulse functions, basic properties of discrete and continuous linear time-invariant (LTI) systems, Fourier representation of continuous-time periodic and aperiodic signals, the Laplance transform, time and frequency analysis of continuous-time LTI systems, application of transform techniques to electric circuit analysis.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Psaromiligkos, Ioannis (Fall) Rochette, Martin (Winter)
Electrical Engineering : Application of transforms to the analysis of LTI single-loop feedback systems, the discrete-time Fourier series, the discrete-time Fourier transform, the Z transform, time and frequency analysis of discrete-time LTI systems, sampling systems, application of continuous and discrete-time signal theory to communications LTI systems.
Terms: Fall 2010, Winter 2011
Instructors: Chen, Lawrence R (Fall) Rose, Richard (Winter)
Electrical Engineering : Discrete-time signals and systems; Fourier and Z-transform analysis techniques, the discrete Fourier transform; elements of FIR and IIR filter design, filter structures; FFT techniques for high speed convolution; quantization effects.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Champagne, Benoit (Winter)
Physics : General nuclear properties, nucleon-nucleon interaction and scattering theory, radioactivity, nuclear models, nuclear reactions.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Jeon, Sang Yong (Fall)
Biomedical Engineering : An overview of how techniques from engineering and the physical sciences are applied to the study of selected physiological systems and biological signals. Using specific biological examples, systems will be studied using: signal or finite-element analysis, system and identification, modelling and simulation, computer control of experiments and data acquisition.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Juncker, David; Grova, Christophe (Fall)
Biomedical Engineering : Methodologies in systems or distributed multidimensional processes. System themes include parametric vs. non-parametric system representations; linear/non-linear; noise, transients and time variation; mapping from continuous to discrete models; and relevant identification approaches in continuous and discrete time formulations.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Biomedical Engineering : The principles and practice of making biological measurements in the laboratory, including theory of linear systems, data sampling, computer interfaces and electronic circuit design.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Wagner, Ross (Fall)
Biomedical Engineering : An introduction to the theoretical framework, experimental techniques and analysis procedures available for the quantitative analysis of physiological systems and signals. Lectures plus laboratory work using the Biomedical Engineering computer system. Topics include: amplitude and frequency structure of signals, filtering, sampling, correlation functions, time and frequency-domain descriptions of systems.
Terms: Fall 2010
Instructors: Kearney, Robert E (Fall)
Electrical Engineering : Design principles of autonomous agents, agent architectures, machine learning, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and multi-agent collaboration. The course includes a term project that consists of designing and implementing software agents that collaborate and compete in a simulated environment.
Terms: Winter 2011
Instructors: Cooperstock, Jeremy (Winter)
Physics : Analytic and computer simulation techniques are used to examine the role of nonlinearities and time delays in determining the dynamic behaviour of physiological control systems and their relation to normal and pathophysiological states. Examples drawn from the control of respiration, cellular proliferation and differentiation, biochemical feedback networks, thermoregulatory mechanisms, and neural feedback.
Terms: This course is not scheduled for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Instructors: There are no professors associated with this course for the 2010-2011 academic year.
0-6 credits
Up to 6 credits in the B.Eng., B.S.E. or B.Sc.(Arch.) program can also be credited to the Minor, with the permission of the departmental adviser and approval of the Minor adviser. In particular, courses at the 200-level or higher that are prerequisites for certain specialization courses would be eligible, with permission of the Minor adviser. By careful selection of complementary courses, the Minor can be satisfied with 9 additional credits in the undergraduate program or a maximum of 12 credits overlap with the degree program.