Graduate Tracks

Biomechanics

Track Coordinator: Michael Sacks ()

This graduate track has a specific menu of courses to satisfy the 9-credit "Track Courses" requirement for the Research M.S., Ph.D., or M.D./Ph.D. This curriculum is developed jointly with faculty from CMU.

At the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University there are broad and extensive research activities in Biomechanics. Application areas include cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, ergonomic, occupational, rehabilitation, and urological. Our educational goal is to expand on the fundamental knowledge gained at the undergraduate level of both biomechanics and the biological sciences, and demonstrate how they can be applied to solve basic and applied biomedical problems. We believe that biomechanics concentration students should be exposed to all areas of biomechanics, and not just their area of specialty. Further, since many areas of biomechanics share similar background material, our courses should present fundamental material first, followed by application examples to give the students a feel for "theory and application" in biomechanics. The fundamental philosophy of the approach is multi-scale, wherein Biomechanics is taught as a means to solve biomedical problems, regardless of problem scale (cell to whole body).

Due to the wide breadth of student interests, we offer the following two sub-tracks:

Sub-track I – Biosolid-fluid mechanics/Biological materials
Sub-track II – Biodynamics/Rehabilitation and Human Movement

Each sub-track has a set of three required courses (see below), as well as special options for a second/third life science courses that would be relevant to their area of interest. 

The specific course requirements and options are listed here.

T32 BiRM Training Grant

Dr. Michael Sacks is the director the T32 Biomechanics in Regenerative Medicine (BiRM) training program. For more information on this program, see the BiRM home page.