Best Classes, Reflections from a Senior BME Student

Hey guys,

I wanted to write a bit this week about the best classes that I have taken over the last four years here at USC. It’s becoming increasingly weird to think that within the next ten weeks, my undergraduate studies and experiences will come to a close (I do plan on getting an MBA sometime after working in the industry for a couple of years, but that’s quite a bit down the road for me to be considering now).

But let’s get to what you’re probably wondering… “what classes should I, an incoming Biomedical Engineering Student, take”. Well, there are some required ones that you will have to take, but some of those end up being some of the best ones that you get to take in the first place. Some of my favorite required BME courses were:

Electrical Engineering 202: Linear Circuits

This course was incredibly great for learning the ins and outs of how circuits work, and with a lab component that builds to creating an electric guitar as your final project, there’s a lot of great skills that you’ll employ along the course of the semester (to be honest, some of my favorite parts were being able to use the woodshop to hand craft the guitar neck and building the circuitry that went inside of the casing for the guitar).

Writing 340:

I’m probably one of the only engineers that you’ll meet that actually really enjoyed this class. It tends to get a bad wrap as a writing class in an engineering curriculum, but I think it’s one of the best classes you get to take because you get to work with other engineers on how to best communicate your ideas and research to non-engineers.

Tech Electives: You’ll also be able to choose some classes to take to supplement your required classes as a biomedical engineer. These are some of my recommendations.

Material Science 310:

Easily my favorite tech elective that I took. The material *pun intended* is extremely interesting as you get to learn about why certain materials are used for certain applications and others are not. You’ll also work on a final project that encourages you to redesign a product using different materials than are currently used, justifying why the product would be better if it used a different material (or design that utilizes a material more efficiently).

iPodia (Engineering 345):

A great class to take if you are interested in working with students from around the world and students from different academic backgrounds. At the end, there is an option to go on a trip to one of the universities that are enrolled in the class. As a student, I went to Israel for two weeks and worked with people from China, Israel, South Korea, and India. I also rejoined the class as a teaching assistant, and went on trips to Dubai and Beijing in the following semesters.

ipodia