In the first semester of the freshman year everyone takes the four-credit Introduction to Biomedical Engineering survey course.

The Biomechanics concentration provides students with preparation for careers involving injury prevention or design of medical devices and artificial organs. For example, by focusing on subjects such as strength of materials and fluid mechanics, students will be able to apply their knowledge to fields such as cardiovascular disease or orthopedics.

The Biosignals & Biosystems concentration prepares students to apply theory and practice of signal processing and dynamical systems to biological physiological, and biomedical systems. The field includes biosignals processing (e.g., ECG, EMG, speech), medical imaging, biomedical instrumentation, neuroengineering, and dynamic modeling of biological systems.

The Cell & Tissue Engineering concentration can be defined as the application of engineering tools and concepts to the study and manipulation of living cells and tissues. This concentration is necessarily interdisciplinary, combining tools and ideas from the fields of biology, engineering, applied mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Some recent areas of interest within this concentration are gene therapy, the creation of replacement cartilage, and stem cell expansion.

The Medical Optics concentration provides the student with a balanced load of courses in biology as well as in optics. The ultimate aim is to produce an engineer at home in the intersection of these two fields and able to tackle problems and generate solutions requiring expertise in both, such as novel flourescence microscopy methods and the use of lasers in medical diagnosis and surgery.