The input of Orange County’s medical device industry in the University of California, Irvine’s biomedical engineering efforts is key to teaching what’s current, according to the dean of the university’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering.
“In engineering, when we graduate a student, the student will be obsolete three to five years after graduating, assuming that we’ve graduated him in the most advanced techniques,” Nicolaos Alexopoulos said. “This is one of the major differences in educating engineers compared to all the other disciplines on campus. For this reason, we not only need to upgrade our curricula on a regular basis to include the newest technologies, but we also are unique in needing to interface with industry on a continuous basis.”
Interaction with industry helps engineering schools keep up with changes that take place constantly with technology, according to the dean. Working together, both industry and academia can advance new biomedical engineering breakthroughs, enhancing the area’s economy much faster, Alexopoulos said.
“That way, we also educate our students in a much more realistic way because they will be interfacing with real-life situations instead of just being textbook educated,” he said.
