Bioengineering and Innovation in Neuroscience
Bioengineering and Innovation in Neuroscience (BIN)
The Bioengineering and
Innovation in Neuroscience (BIN) training program, like the other tracks of the BME PARIS master’s program, leaves a wide part to interdisciplinarity. It is designed both for engineering school students, and for university students having a robust initial training in basic science or medicine. Courses will mesh engineering, mathematics, and computer concepts with molecular, cellular and systems neuroscience. This track is hosted by ESPCI Paris, Arts et Métiers ParisTech Institute of Technology and Université Paris Cité.
Our ambition is that through courses, seminars, social events, conferences and collaborative interactions, BIN students will contribute to bridge the gap between basic, clinical, and engineering neuroscience. We believe it is a key issue for both industry and medicine in the 21st century, because of :
- aging of the world population, which will considerably increase the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, and more generally of sensory and motor handicaps. These will require the development of new biomedical devices and molecular tools to better (i) diagnose neurological diseases, (ii) evaluate their progression or treatment, and (iii) remediate disease- or age-associated handicaps, to which doctors will be confronted increasingly often
- strong demands from a broadening range of industries, way beyond the
biomedical ones, including aviation, automobile, sports, and videogames. There is indeed an increasing need to understand how humans interact with their environments in general and with the new complex working environments of today in particular (human factor). Many industries will thus require engineers with both good engineering skills and basic knowledge of neurophysiology - the requirement of integrative methods and concepts, from the behavioral to the molecular level, to understand how the central nervous system functions, and can be repaired and enhanced. Neuroscience thus cover almost all biomedical technologies and applications. They illustrate well the interdisciplinarity that lies at the heart of biomedical engineering, because they strongly require the collaboration of doctors and engineers, combining many different skills, in optics, electronics, informatics, robotics, physiology, ergonomy, chemistry, etc.
The BIN track has also an industrial orientation, by:
- relying on many lecturers from research and development (R&D) departments of major companies, as well as start-ups. Technical and industrial aspects will be emphasized, but also the eventual entrepreneurial efforts (successful or not) involved
- offering a practical initiation to innovative entrepreneurship through a Business plan workshop (shared with the BioMAT track)
- encouraging students to apply for their 2nd semester internship in an industrial R&D laboratory or a hospital department
Courses
An introductory teaching unit will mainly provide a comprehensive overview of the structure and function of the nervous system. The focus will be both on systems and cellular neuroscience, providing the biological notions required for engineering students to follow the BIN track, while refreshing and/or complementing knowledge previously acquired by science and medical students.
Other courses will cover human-machine, brain-machine and brain-computer interfaces (from principles and design to practical implementation and a wide array of « neuroengineering » applications), the imaging and manipulation of neuronal and brain activity, predictive chemistry for neuroscience (from design to clinical testing), microfluidics and other innovative miniaturized biotechnologies for the nervous system, statistics, computer modeling of neuronal networks and their applications… (more detailed presentations of the courses can be found below).
Career opportunities
The interdisciplinary training and experience acquired through the BIN track provide employment opportunities in numerous professional fields, such as the medical device industry (for medical bioimaging, or advanced sensory and motor remediation), or the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and chemical industries (drug design, biosensors), as well as robotics, or defense, sport, automobile, aviation and videogame industries. The BIN track can also lead to a PhD thesis in an academic or industrial research laboratory, and subsequently to an academic career in the medical or scientific fields.
Semester 3
Mandatory courses
12 ECTS (minimum) to be picked among
Depending on capacity and subject to track chairs’ authorization, the following teaching units may be chosen outside of the track :
One course (3 or 6 ECTS) in Neuroscience track of the PSL Life Science Master
Semester 4
Mandatory courses
NB. No schedule or syllabus will be provided before the kick-off meeting. You must know that it is a full-time program though.
As far as the non mandatory courses are concerned, the students’ choices will have to be discussed with the track chairs and will be finalized during the interdisciplinary week, taking the student’s personal background and interests into consideration. It will then be validated in a co-signed contract of study.
The courses students will eventually attend will also depend on actual availability: some courses might not open because of an insufficient number of attendees, while others may have a limited capacity and not be able to offer a seat to all.
As indicated, a course may be offered to BME Paris students outside the track which supports it. In such cases, priority will be given to students enrolled in the supporting track.
Students enrolled in other Arts et Métiers, Université Paris Cité or Université PSL programs may also attend a BME Paris course, provided that:
- their respective program chairs support their application
- the course is not already full
- the relevant BME Paris chairs accept their applications which must include a CV and a motivation letter
