TOTAL EXAMINATION PROGRAM
PEO Syllabus of Examinations, 2004 Edition
BIOMEDICAL/BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
PROFESSIONAL EXAMS – SPECIFIC TO BIOMEDICAL/BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
GROUP A
04-Bio-A1 Biomaterials and Biocompatibility
Structure and properties of amorphous solids. Physical and chemical bases for properties exhibited by materials. Polymeric biomaterials. Metallic biomaterials. Ceramic biomaterials. Composite materials. Material properties including mechanical, electrical, magnetic and thermal behaviour. Applications of biomaterials in tissue and organ systems. Relationship between physical and chemical structure of materials and biological system response. Selection, fabrication and modification of materials for specific biomedical applications. Biomaterials processing. Biomaterials degradation. Implant requirements. Host-implants reactions including wound healing response and inflammatory response. Physiological and biomechanical basis for soft-tissue implants. Design of modified biomaterials. Bulk and surface characterization of materials. Regulatory and ethical concerns dealing with the implementation and commercialisation of biomaterials and medical devices.
04-Bio-A2 Process Dynamics and Control
Linear models of physical systems and processes, the concept of the transfer function. The transient response of linear systems to step, ramp and sinusoidal inputs. Bode plots and the frequency response analysis of systems. On-off, proportional, integral, derivative and combined control actions. Stability analysis of closed-loop systems using the root locus method and the Nyquist criterion. Feedback and feedforward control. The state-space analysis of control systems. Modeling of nonlinear systems using the phase-plane and describing functions methods, stability of control systems involving nonlinear elements, the concept of limit cycles. A basic knowledge of sampled-data control systems including the z transform. The design of simple digital controllers. Application of the concepts of process dynamics and control to physiologic systems with particular attention to neural and homeostatic mechanisms.
04-Bio-A3 Cellular and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Cell structure and function, including transport and chemical signals, adaptation of structure and function. Use of micro organisms in biotechnology. Biology of the prokarytoic cell. Chemical and physical structure of proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids, connective tissue and bone from molecular to microscopic levels. Relationship of chemical and physical structure of proteins to function including regulation of enzyme activity. Recombinant DNA technology including cloning, directed mutagenesis, DNA sequencing and expression of cloned genes. Development and use of recombinant proteins as therapeutic drugs. Fundamentals of therapeutic protein action. Site specific mutation of proteins. Protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions, receptor –ligand interactions, cell adhesion, cell migration, signal transduction, cell growth and differentiation. Post-translational processing and secretion of proteins. Gene cloning and expression in mammalian cells. Techniques used for imaging, identification and measurement of biological materials.
04-Bio-A4 Biomechanics
The musculoskeletal system; general characteristics and classification of tissues and joints. Elastic and viscoelastic mechanical characterization of biological tissues including bone, cartilage, ligament and tendon. Principles of viscoelastic and the rate sensitivity of biological materials. The stress-strain-time or constitutive equations for soft connective tissue components. Biomechanics and clinical problems in orthopaedics. Modelling and force analysis of musculoskeletal systems. Passive and active kinematics. Mechanical properties of biological and commonly used biomedical engineering materials.
04-Bio-A5 Enzyme and Microbial Kinetics
Basic principles of bioprocessing fundamentals, which includes: kinetics of enzymatic reactions and microbial growth, batch and continuous cell growth kinetics, products formation and nutrient utilization, bioreactor systems. Basic principles of biochemical engineering. Applied enzyme catalysis, immobilized enzyme technology, kinetics of substrate utilization, product formation and biomass production in cell culture, batch and continuous culture. Applications of biochemical engineering.
04-Bio-A6 Anatomy and Physiology
Description of the human systems. Skeletal system with anatomy of superior members, inferior members and rachis. Osteoarticular system: physiology of bones, osseous tissues, articular cartilage, tendons, ligaments and muscles. Respiratory system, circulatory system, digestive system, urinary system, nervous system, reproductive apparatus. Structure-function relationships in human body systems.
04-Bio-A7 Fluid Mechanics
Basics of momentum transfer and fluid flow; their application to the solution of engineering problems. Topics include: Engineering unit systems, dimensionless quantities; Basic concepts of fluid statics; Newton's law of viscosity; Steady and unsteady flow; Compressible and incompressible flow; Turbulent shear stress; Bernoulli's theorem, momentum transfer equations, equation of continuity; Computational fluid dynamics principles; Newtonian and Non –Newtonian fluids; External and internal flow; Fluid flow in pipes; Friction factors; Pumps, compressors, turbines; Flow measurement devices.
04-Bio-A8 Biophysical Measurements
Biomedical sensors and their application to the measurement of blood pressure, cardiac output and respiratory function. The origin of biopotentials including membrane and action potentials. Measurement of the electrocardiogram and the electroencephalogram. Basic electrode, biochemical sensor and laser applications including cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators. The basic concepts underlying computed transmission and emission tomography, magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging. The imaging methods should be understood in terms of how imaging information is generated, detected and processed and how different hardware configurations and other factors affect image quality.
04-Bio-A9 Bioreactor Design
Transport phenomena in biochemical engineering systems, design and analysis of bioreactors, mixing, aeration, sterilization, instrumentation and control in bioprocesses. Internal and external mass transfer in immobilized systems. Oxygen mass transfer parameters of a bioreactor and design of an aeration system. Scale up of Bioprocesses.
GROUP B
04-Bio-B1 Biochemical Separations
The fundamentals of downstream separation and purification processes such as membrane separation processes, protein separation and purification and other separation processes of economic importance to the fermentation industry. Cell Disruption. Solid Liquid Separation, filtration, centrifugation. Membrane separation. Isoelectric focussing. Adsorption. Chromatography principles, Crystallization.
04-Bio-B2 Prostheses and Orthoses
Introduction, historic, terminology and classification of prostheses and orthoses. Partial or total replacement of limb or joint. Introduction to biomechanics related to design of prostheses and orthoses: clinical and mechanical aspects, biomaterials, biocompatibility. General design objectives and criteria. Design and assessment standards.
04-Bio-B3 Biotransport Phenomena
Momentum, heat and mass transfer. Mass, linear momentum and energy balances. Differential analysis of laminar viscous flow. Differential analysis of heat conduction. Differential analysis of diffusion and convective transport. Biological examples of transport phenomena including: pharmacology and pharmacokinetics; absorption distribution, biotransformation, elimination, calculation of dosages; variability in drug response and adverse drug responses; drug delivery; microenvironment, transport and binding of small and large molecules; movement of cancer and immune cells; metastatic process, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hyperthermia, and photodynamic therapy of solid tumors. Numerical methods for computer simulation.
04-Bio-B4 Digital Image Processing
The extension of one dimensional sampling theory to two dimensions. Knowledge of the concepts of sampling geometry and sampling density. Two dimensional image transforms particularly the Fourier, Cosine and Walsh-Hadamard transforms. Important pixel operations for image enhancement particularly gray-scale modification and algebraic and geometric transforms. Convolution in two dimensions with particular application to image interpolation (upsampling). The spatial domain and frequency domain application of finite-extent point-spread filters for noise reduction, edge detection and image sharpening. Knowledge of the design and application of some common filters such as the Laplacian, the gradient and the Gaussian filters. Some knowledge of the concepts of image restoration from known degradations such as blur due to camera motion using some of the most common methods such as inverse and Wiener filtering and constrained deconvolution. The reconstruction of images from parallel and fan-beam projections as used in computed transmission tomography (CT).
04-Bio-B5 Cell and Tissue Engineering
Integration of relevant aspects of physiology, pathology, developmental biology, disease treatment and biomaterials to regenerative medicine in complex organ systems. Host response to tissue engineered constructs including complement, coagulation, immunological responses. Engineered replacements of kidney, lung, vascular, skin. Chemical, electrical, mechanical, materials, pathological and surgical aspects of construct development. Integrative exploration of the use of three-dimensional polymeric scaffolds and drug delivery vehicles, and gene therapy and cellular engineering for functional repair of injured tissues. Cell selection.
04-Bio-B6 Bioinstrumentation
Principles of design and analysis of electric instrumentation for biological applications. Ideal and non-ideal operational amplifiers, signal conditioning filters, sampling theory, analog to digital and digital to analog converters, sample and hold circuitry and multichannel data acquisition including the constraints imposed by real-time processing. The acquisition and processing of diagnostic signals such as the electrocardiogram, the echocardiogram, the blood pressure and hemoglobin oxygen saturation signals. Some basic knowledge of statistics for assessing the signal to noise characteristics of measured data.
04-Bio-B7 Robotics and Manufacturing Automation
An overview of robotics and manufacturing technology and principles. Topics include: Automatic production and assembly, PLCs, sensors, actuators and drives, mechanization of part handling, industrial robots, and machine vision systems. Emphasis will be on the planning, design and implementation of automation systems.
04-Bio-B8 Rehabilitation Engineering
Introduction to rehabilitation engineering; Wheeled mobility: W/C history, technology and standards, fundamentals of manual W/Cs propulsion biomechanics, powered W/Cs and control systems; Functional disabilities: types of neuromuscular impairments; Specialized seating: classification of seating technologies, biomechanical principles of seating support & pressure, CAD/CAM seating applications; Hearing aids and cochlear implants: sensory and hearing aided technologies; Alternative & Augmentative Communication: rational, technologies & access strategies, principles of access & communication optimization; Prosthetics and orthotics: engineering principles of lower limb prostheses; ADL Devices: rational, design principles and use for upper & lower limb dysfunction; Measurement tools in rehabilitation engineering.
04-Bio-B9 Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
AI-based decision making in biology and medicine using predicate calculus, structures and strategies for state space search, heuristic search and stochastic methods. Knowledge representation, reasoning and decision-making under uncertainty as well as case-based reasoning, decision trees. Rule-based and expert systems, inference mechanisms and knowledge engineering. Machine learning including supervised learning, self-organization, reinforcement learning and evolutionary computing. Intelligent biomedical information systems, intelligent devices and instruments such as interactive implants and replacements and measurement systems. Automated reasoning and data mining. Advanced methods for problem solving including natural language processing, planning and perception.
04-Bio-B10 Analytical Biochemistry
Relevant analytical techniques for characterization of biological systems and materials. Nuclear magnetic resonance. Fourier transform infra red analysis. SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. HPLC. Flow cytometry. DNA gel extraction and ligation. Plasmid DNA mini-preps and PCR. Affinity purification and electrophoresis. Surface analysis techniques including x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, interfacial tension and ellipsometry.
04-Bio-B11 Ergonomics (98-Ind-B5 Ergonomics)
Basic human abilities and characteristics, including vision and hearing. Psychomotor characteristics. Anthropometry: static and dynamic human body dimensions and muscle strength. Environmental factors, including illumination, atmospheric conditions, noise, and vibration. Ergonomic work design, including layout of equipment, manual work aids, design of seating, and person-machine interfaces: instruments, controls, and software.
04-Bio-B12 Applied Optics/Photonics
Basic optics of rays; reflection, refraction, and polarization. Lens systems and image formation. Principles of basic optical instruments such as magnifiers, microscopes and telescopes. Basics of light sources: lasers, light emitting diodes, thermal light sources, fluorescence, and photodetectors. Tissue optics and light-tissue interactions and dosimetry. Principles of fibre optics and light guides, endoscopic systems and applications. Biomedical applications of photonics such as phototherapy and photodiagnosis, tissue oximetry, optical spectroscopy and microscopy, fluorescence marking.
COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES
11-CS-1 Engineering Economics
Basic concepts of engineering economics through understanding of the theoretical and conceptual financial project analysis. Types and applications of engineering economic decisions. Capital, cash flow, and the time value of money concepts. Nominal and effective interest rates when considering loans, mortgages, and bonds. The application of present worth analysis, annual equivalent analysis and rate of return analysis in evaluating independent projects, comparing mutually exclusive projects, analyzing lease vs. buy alternatives and making decisions. After-tax financial analysis requiring an understanding of capital cost allowance (depreciation) and corporate income tax. Understanding methods of financing and capital budgeting. Break-even, sensitivity and risk analyses.
11-CS-2 Engineering in Society – Health and Safety
The duties and legal responsibilities for which engineers are accountable; safety laws and regulations; and a basic knowledge of potential hazards and their control: biological hazards – bacteria, viruses; chemical hazards - gases, liquids and dusts; fire and explosion hazards; physical hazards – noise, radiation, temperature extremes; safety hazards – equipment operation; workplace conditions - equity standards, human behaviour, capabilities, and limitations; managing safety and health through risk management, safety analyses, and safety plans and programs; practices and procedures to improve safety. The roles and social responsibilities of an engineer from a professional ethics point of view, as applied in the context of Canadian values. The integration of ethics into engineering practice, and its effect on public safety and trust.
11-CS-3 Sustainability, Engineering and the Environment
Basic knowledge of soil, water and air quality engineering: soil and water interaction, water supply issues, human activities and their interaction on soil, air and water resources. Fundamentals of: soil erosion, water quality, atmospheric pollution (carbon and nitrogen cycle), climate change, risk assessment. Basic knowledge of renewable energy sources: solar, photovoltaic, wireless electricity, thermal, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. Introduction to renewable materials engineering; nano materials, new material cycles. Eco-product development, and product life cycle assessment; recycling technologies; reuse of products; design for disassembly, recycling, e-waste, and reverse manufacturing. Consumption patterns; transportation; environmental communication; consumer awareness. Optimized energy and resources management. Sustainable methods: sustainability indicators; life cycle assessment; regulatory aspects of environmental management, ecological planning.
11-CS-4 Engineering Management
Introduction to management principles and their impact upon social and economic aspects of engineering practice. Engineering management knowledge topics including: market research, assessment and forecasting; strategic planning; risk and change management; product, service and process development; engineering projects and process management; financial resource management; marketing, sales and communications management; leadership and organizational management; professional responsibility. New paradigms and innovative business models, including: sustainable production, products, service systems and consumption; best practices and practical examples of successful implementations of sustainable scientific and engineering solutions.