Vol. 3 No. 1 September 2004

The BioTECH Quarterly

Inter-chapter Relations: letter from Berkeley Bioengineering Chronicle

"Peer interaction . . . is the basis for the development of the bioengineering newsletter here at Cal. We wish to offer students a forum to discuss issues and challenges facing bioengineering. We hope to bring these issues to the eyes of the department as well as the wider community."

By UC Berkeley Bioengineering Chronicle Staff

Dear MIT BMES members,

    We would like to thank the BioTECH staff for providing valuable help during the launch of our own newsletter here at the University of California, Berkeley. The BioTECH clearly stands out as a top-notch undergraduate biomedical newsletter. The in-depth, well-written articles provide a unique MIT perspective to biomedical engineering. The strength of the newsletter reflects the highly motivated and dedicated biomedical engineering students at MIT. We admire the fact that the current development of your undergraduate program is largely the result of student-driven efforts.

    The students at Cal Berkeley share MIT's strong student interest in the direction of the biomedical engineering program. Berkeley's bioengineers are, by far, the most active student leaders on the College of Engineering campus. Bioengineers hold five of the twelve positions in the officer corps of the Engineers' Joint Council, the governing body for all engineering societies at Cal. These students serve as the liaison between the students at Cal and the College administration. In addition to this, four of the ten recently appointed student members on College faculty committees are bioengineers, the largest proportion from any major in the College. These members offer a student perspective on issues ranging from curriculum changes to the choice of Commencement speaker. The high level of involvement at the College level demonstrates the Berkeley bioengineering undergraduates’ commitment to guiding the direction of the College.

    At the student society level, bioengineers also hold positions in a variety of organizations. In the Society of Women Engineers, for example, ten of the twenty-one officers (including those in the top executive positions) are bioengineers. The Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society's (EMBS) strong officer corps of 25 highly motivated men and women work on a number of activities, similar to those offered by MIT's BMES: student/faculty mixers, faculty talks, peer course advising, career fairs, and research information sessions. This September, the student chapter looks forward to helping run the 26th Annual International Conference of EMBS in San Francisco. The Bioengineering Honor Society, in only its third year, is preparing to join the national bioengineering honor society.

    Student leaders in bioengineering are also in the process of starting a BMES chapter here at Berkeley. These activities all showcase the high motivation of the Berkeley bioengineering undergraduates. As bioengineering continues to expand at Berkeley and elsewhere, the need for interaction between different campuses and societies is increasing. Bioengineering is a discipline that requires one to integrate knowledge from a variety of areas.

    Peer interaction is an integral part of this process. That is the basis for the development of the bioengineering newsletter here at Cal. We wish to offer students a forum to discuss issues and challenges facing bioengineering. We hope to bring these issues to the eyes of the department as well as the wider community. By doing so, we would like to encourage interaction among Berkeley Golden Bears as well as between Bears and members of other campuses. We especially look forward to increased involvement with the MIT campus as its biomedical engineering program continues to strengthen and grow.

Best regards,
UC Berkeley Bioengineering Chronicle staff

UC Berkeley's undergraduate bioengineering program is currently undergoing major changes. Proposed guidelines will require students to take a number of core upper-division bioengineering classes, a departure from the greater flexibility in coursework selection previously afforded to students majoring in bioengineering. Student and faculty reflection of this move can be found in their newly launched newsletter — UC Berkeley Bioengineering Chronicle.