Neuroengineering & Optics
Biomedical Engineering is an interdisciplinary field that involves the application of engineering principles and methods to problems in medicine and healthcare. Through the application of engineering techniques such as computational modelling, signal and image processing we can gain a greater understanding of mechanisms governing the complex physiological systems of the human body, from the single cell up to the system level.
Sophisticated engineering methods can be used to extract information from biological signals that help understand healthy physiological systems and the changes that occur in disease, thereby improving early diagnosis and intervention strategies. Electronic and Electrical engineering is also fundamental to the development of new technologies that can interact with the human body including neuromodulation therapies based on electrical stimulation of the nervous and cardiovascular systems, neuroprostheses and wireless monitoring of physiological signals. Advancements in communication systems and sensor technologies are opening up new ways of monitoring and interpreting patient data.
Biomedical Engineering has long been associated with the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering in UCD, particularly in the areas of rehabilitation engineering, neuroengineering, modelling of physiological signals and systems and biomedical signal processing. Neuroengineering (also known as Neural Engineering) is a discipline within Biomedical Engineering that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, enhance, or otherwise exploit the properties of neural systems. Neural engineers are uniquely qualified to solve design problems at the interface of living neural tissue and non-living constructs.
Current areas of Biomedical Engineering research in the School include Neuromuscular Systems and Neural Engineering, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cardiovascular Systems and Respiration, Sleep Monitoring and Biomedical Optics. These research groups are also members of the multidisciplinary UCD Centre for Biomedical Engineering Research and contribute to the undergraduate and graduate BE and ME Biomedical Engineering programmes.