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Symposium on bio-medical engineering
Vandana Singh
SILIGURI, April 7: "Bio-medical engineering" (BME) is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the expertise of engineering with medical needs to improve healthcare. Research and development are the most common line of work for bio-medical engineers and covers a wide array of fields such as medical imaging, image processing, physiological signal processing and so on. Examples of concrete applications of BME include development and manufacture of prostheses, medical devices, laboratory equipment, drugs and other therapies as well as the application of engineering principles to biological science problems.
Though, it is a less known discipline than electrical engineering or mechanical engineering, of late an increasing number of universities with an engineering faculty now have a bio-medical engineering programme or department from the undergraduate to the doctorate level.
A pioneering role is being played by the Siliguri Institute of Technology (SIT), a reputed engineering institution of the Techno-India Group, offering a degree programme in BME in the eastern region of the country, coupled with the facility of campus recruitment to its students.
With an objective to provide a common platform for fruitful interaction to the scholars and experts in the field of BME and also to provide a clear understanding of the subject, a two-day national technical symposium on bio-medical engineering- "BIMETS'06" was today held at the Siliguri Institute of Technology.
Welcoming the assembled audience at the symposium, Prof Ashish Ranjan Nath, principal-in-charge of SIT and chairman of the symposium, said that "BIMETS' 06" is an endeavour to bring together BME students and professionals from different corners of the country for gainful interaction and exchange of ideas.
He said the SIT thrived on providing a perfect educational ambience to its students by an excellent faculty, fully equipped laboratories along with campus recruitment facilities.
The symposium was opened with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by the chief guest. Prof Puvvada Ramesh, dean academics, Vignan's Engineering College at Vadlamudi in Andhra Pradesh and chief guest of the symposium, said the human body is a complex system employing numerous branches of engineering and hoped that the symposium would yield some innovative ideas that can be applied in the BME field to improve health and medical facilities.
Prof Subratha Pal, founder-director and Prof School of Bio-Science and Engineering, Jadavpur University, spoke about how of late the relevance and significance of BME has risen, with India emerging as a major health tourism hub offering world-class medical facilities at nominal costs.
With the study of biomedical engineering still in its nascent stage in the country, Dr GK Prabhu, associate director (R&D) and head, dept of BME, Manipal Institute of Engineering, stressed the need to create awareness about this emerging field of study and hoped to see a similar response for the BME seminar to be convened next year by the MIE.
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