Bioengineering Systems

Subjects you could take in this major

• Biosystems Design

  AIMS

  This subject involves undertaking biosystems design group projects from concept to reporting and communicating the design proposal through to possible development, and so will provide an integrated capstone experience for the Bioengineering major.
  
  The emphasis of each of the projects is associated with a well-defined project description that may be based on a task required by an academic or external, industry-based client. The topics covered will include design processes, formulation of the problem, conceptual designs, partitioning of design activities, analysis of system components, integration of design, quality and safety assessment, project management, and engineering professional attitudes.
  
  The open-ended nature of the design task will result in students having exposure to historical, sociological and environmental factors in invention and innovation, professional ethics, regulatory and statutory requirements, legal and ethical responsibilities, and environmental considerations.

  INDICATIVE CONTENT
  

  Topics include:

  Design Control Processes -Design and development planning, Design input, Design control, Design output, Design review, and Design verification

  Theory of measurement – understanding and applying the limitations of measurement

  Amplifier circuits –design and construct basic op-amp circuits to the application of high precision instrumentation amps

  Data acquisition systems – programming and applying industry standard engineering software and hardware tools

  Sensors – adapting and implementing simple displacement and electrochemical sensors

  Physiological dynamics – understanding physiological dynamic parameters and applying parameter estimation techniques to acquire physiological signals

  Non-invasive physiological system – use sensors, amplifiers, data acquisition systems and parameter estimation to design and construct a physiological system

  Handbook entry for BMEN30008
• Biotransport Processes

  AIMS

  This subject introduces transport processes in biomedical systems, complementing and reinforcing material learned in related biology subjects. Students will be introduced to the process of developing engineering models and simple conceptual designs in the context of biological systems. The subject covers fundamental concepts of diffusion and conservation within momentum, heat and mass transport. Within momentum transport, specific topics include Newton’s law of viscosity, viscosity of gases and liquids, conservation of momentum, velocity distributions in simple laminar flows, boundary layer concepts and turbulence and the Reynolds number. Within heat transport, Fourier’s law of conduction is covered. Within mass transport, specific topics include Fick’s first and second laws of diffusion, diffusivities of gases, liquids and solids, binary mixture diffusion and conservation of mass, concentration distributions in simple binary systems including identifying appropriate boundary conditions, concentration boundary layer concepts, Schmidt and Sherwood numbers, definition and use of mass transfer coefficients.
  
  Students will examine transport of molecules and cells in biological systems to describe various key processes, such as cell migration and provision of cell nutrition. The role of transport processes in biological systems and employed in clinical applications, such as dialysis, will be described using simple engineering models.

  INDICATIVE CONTENT

  Topics covered include momentum transport, viscosity, turbulence, heat transport, mass transport, diffusion in binary systems, unsteady state mass transfer, and modelling biological transport processes.
  
  

  Handbook entry for BMEN30007
• Circuits and Systems

  AIMS

  This subject introduces students to the fundamental principles of circuit and signal measurements and analyses in a biosignals context. In addition to the fundamental concepts, topics to be covered include an introduction to various types of sensors and the basic methods required to analyse measurements, calibrate sensors and evaluate measurement system performance.
  
  In the laboratories, students will learn about laboratory safety, team work and measurement safety in an integrated way.
  
  This subject is one of the subjects that define the Bioengineering Systems Major in the Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Biomedicine, and it is a core requirement for the Master of Engineering (Biomedical). It provides a foundation for various subsequent subjects, including BMEN90002 Neural Information Processing and BMEN90021 Medical Imaging.

  INDICATIVE CONTENT
  

  Topics include:

  Basic principles of charge, current, Coulomb's law, electric fields and electrical energy, Kirchhoff's current law, Kirchhoff's voltage law, voltage and current division, node voltage analysis, mesh current analysis, Thévenin and Norton equivalent circuits, transient analysis of RC and RL circuits, steady-state analysis of RLC circuits, phasors and impedance, frequency domain models for signals and frequency response for systems, continuous-time and discrete-time Fourier transforms, frequency response, filtering, transfer functions, Z-transforms, Laplace transforms, poles and zeros, Bode plots, and the relationship to state-space representations.

  This material is complemented by the use of software tools (e.g. MATLAB) for computation and simulation, and practical experience with circuits and systems in the laboratory.
  
  

  Handbook entry for BMEN30006
• Introduction to Biomechanics

  AIMS

  The main aim of this course is to introduce students to the basic concepts of the kinematics and dynamics of human motion and the architectural features and mechanical properties of musculoskeletal tissue. Tissue function is then illustrated in the context of normal and pathological movement.

  INDICATIVE CONTENT

  Specific topics covered include: Motion of a Rigid Body (reference frames, angular velocity, two points fixed on a rigid body); Measurement and Processing of Kinematic Data; Body Anthropometry (calculation of centre of mass and mass moment of inertia); Forces and Moments (moments of force, muscle moment arm, inverse dynamics analysis); Work, Energy, Power (kinetic energy, potential energy, elastic strain energy); Tissue Biomechanics (muscle, tendon, ligament, cartilage and bone); Orthopaedic Biomechanics: biomechanics of gait across the lifespan, biomechanical adaptations to training, knee osteoarthritis).

  Handbook entry for BMEN30005
• Signals and Systems

  AIMS

  The aim of this subject is twofold: firstly, to develop an understanding of the fundamental tools and concepts used in the analysis of signals and the analysis and design of linear time-invariant systems path in continuous–time and discrete- time; secondly, to develop an understanding of their application in a broad range of areas, including electrical networks, telecommunications, signal-processing and automatic control.

  The subject formally introduces the fundamental mathematical techniques that underpin the analysis and design of electrical networks, telecommunication systems, signal-processing systems and automatic control systems. Such systems lie at the heart of the electrical engineering technologies that underpin modern society. This subject is one of four that define the Electrical System Major in the Bachelor of Science and it is a core requirement in the Master of Engineering (Electrical). It provides the foundation for various subsequent subjects, including ELEN90057 Communication Systems, ELEN90058 Signal Processing and ELEN90055 Control Systems.

  INDICATIVE CONTENT
  

  Topics include:

  
  Signals – continuously and discretely indexed signals, important signal types, frequency-domain analysis (Fourier, Laplace and Z transforms), nonlinear transformations and harmonics, sampling;

  Systems – viewing differential / difference equations as systems that process signals, the notions of input, output and internal signals, block diagrams (series, parallel and feedback connections), properties of input-output models (causality, delay, stability, gain, shift-invariance, linearity), transient and steady state behaviour;

  Linear time-invariant systems – continuous and discrete impulse response; convolution operation, transfer functions and frequency response, time-domain interpretation of stable and unstable poles and zeros, state-space models (construction from high-order ODEs, canonical forms, state transformations and stability), and the discretisation of models for systems of continuously indexed signals.

  
  This material is complemented by exposure to the use of MATLAB for computation and simulation and examples from diverse areas including electrical engineering, biology, population dynamics and economics.

  Handbook entry for ELEN30012