The Office of Assessment at NC State has recently highlighted what BME’s program has done to become even stronger. Our graduate program in biomedical engineering includes in their outcome that students should “demonstrate that they are able to contribute as scholars to the field.” Thus, the program surveyed doctoral students, gathering evidence of the number of refereed published manuscripts, full-length conference proceedings, oral presentations at national and international conferences, and grants awarded. BME Faculty found that among the strengths of the program were that students were meeting their expectations for papers published, poster presentations, and grants received.
However, the data showed that the program could be improved by encouraging students to give more national and international presentations. This enhances professional development of students and elevates the visibility of the program. In order to meet this goal, faculty decided to: 1. provide more financial support for students to travel to present papers; 2. require that students have presentations accepted in order to attain travel support; 3.offer a seminar on writing proposal abstracts; and 4.engage faculty more in encouraging students to submit abstracts and provide constructive feedback. You can read about the Office of Assessment highlight here.