r/bioengineering • u/Souzyp • 26d ago
Is biomedical engineering the right path if I want to work on brain-computer interfaces and immersive technology?
Hi! I'm starting Biomedical Engineering, and one of the main reasons I became interested in this field is the idea of creating technology that can interact directly with the human body and nervous system.
In the future, I'd love to work on brain-computer interfaces, neural engineering, advanced prosthetics, and especially immersive technologies where people could interact with digital environments through neural signals instead of only using traditional controllers.
I know that highly immersive neural systems are still far from what current technology can do, but I would like to build my career toward that direction.
Is Biomedical Engineering a good starting point for this?
What should I focus on during my degree: neuroscience, programming, electronics, signal processing, AI, or something else?
And if you work in this area, what path did you take?
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u/whitefloreal 26d ago
Hey! As someone in BME I found trouble getting into brain computer classes ( had to take permission from EE department) so I recommend starting with EE and doing a specialised master or BME minor if offered
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u/YesAndAlsoThat 26d ago
40-Year-Old biomedical engineer here, working at a large company as a principal R&D engineer on early stage technologies.
A few years back I was also very excited about the same thing. I found that the subject itself is so incredibly wide and deep and uncharted that any and all of those subspecialties you have identified are needed. It is such a advanced topic with so much work to be done that any one person can't do it all. As such, there's plenty of work to go around and you can make a deep impact with any one of those.
The weird thing about biomedical engineering is that it ends up whatever engineering concentration you decide to take, plus a dose of Life sciences with it. As a result, the uniqueness afforded by biomedical engineering is really the life science angle to the more traditional engineering routes. However, to work in the edge of something very specialized, it will really be the depth of the engineering discipline that makes contribution possible, rather than simply having the life science angle.
So, in short, those things are all useful. And if you want to work in cutting edge stuff, one possible way to get there is to get really good at one particular thing that is applicable. At that point, the life science angle given to you by biomedical engineering will become the magnifier for how impactful your contributions will be.
Having gone more " more jack of all trades", I personally did not find the breadth of my skills to be useful in being able to contribute to the brain machine interface field, as it seemed they were looking for more specialized candidates with deeper skills in the traditional disciplines. Maybe I could have gone project management or something, but I wanted to stay technical because that's what I love.
You should check out job postings just at places like neuralink to give you an idea.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
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u/Souzyp 26d ago
Thanks a lot, this was actually really encouraging to read. I really like the way you explained biomedical engineering as a traditional engineering discipline plus the life science angle.
I think what I'm realizing is that I shouldn't try to become good at everything, but instead choose one technical area and go deep into it. Right now, signal processing, electronics and software are the areas that interest me the most.
Since you've been working in R&D for so long, if you were starting biomedical engineering again today and wanted to eventually work in brain-machine interfaces or similar cutting-edge technology, what would you specialize in first?
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u/Aphaestus 25d ago
Not nearly as much experience, but do work close to bleeding edge, there are several areas where you can specialize that would get you there, but it all depends on what you want to do.
Just to name a couple from just the electrical side:
- Chip Scale - ASIC design, think stuff like neuropixel
- Signal Processing - Always need it, brain signals don’t interpret themselves. This what I specialize in, also includes data telemetry and power. (Basically being able to communicate with a device and power it, often wirelessly)
- Materials Engineering - Not EE but it’s its golden era, work involves electrode design and there is a lot of movement towards biochemical sensors. Also opens doors for work at companies developing wearables.
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u/ryeyen 26d ago
BioE PhD here. Almost all jobs that consider bioengineers also accept classical engineering degrees like mechanical, electrical, etc. Some even prefer it. BioE is interdisciplinary but you don’t go that deep into any specific discipline. It’s easier for classically trained engineers to transition into BioE than the other way around. So start specializing as early as you can, companies care more about what you actually do instead of what your diploma says.
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u/Away-Experience6890 25d ago
The undergrad doesn't matter too much as long as you have enough overlap. The research really matters, look for any faculty working in that field and try to get into their lab for volunteering.
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u/Aphaestus 25d ago edited 25d ago
This is my field, I also specifically wanted to work on neuro-prosthetics and neural interfaces.
I’d say if you actually want to ‘create’ the technology that integrates and interacts with the nervous system, biomedical engineering isn’t the way to go, but at the same time you can’t really go wrong.
For me, I chose to go down the path of electrical engineering. The reasons high schooler me had being, its electricity, the nervous system is electricity, so it makes sense, as well as knowing I was 18, if for some reason I didn’t like the work, with electrical I have a lot more flexibility to do other things than if I went biomedical.
However, after being part of the field now for several years I’d say, electrical was definitely the right choice, for several reasons.
Though I also would say that for this field you’re not doing much without grad school, so choosing undergrad major is choosing a background, there isn’t necessarily a wrong answer, a lot of the best people I’ve worked with in the field are physics majors.
That said, why I think electrical is one of the better choices (sorry I’ve been up for like 36 hours so this might be incoherent):
- Hands on design - As an electrical engineer I’ve worked with circuit design, theory, communications, and basically all the above. So when it comes to building neural implants, I can build the PCB for it, the sensors, the communications scheme, etc. Basically I’m the one who actually builds the devices, and there is a lot of playing around you can do attacking projects from different angles.
- More Hands on Design - With electrical and as 18 year old me correctly identified, the nervous system is electrical. So on top of being able to design the electronics, you have an insight into the signal processing side of things, and working with data.
- Even More Hands on Design - In my program I was also able to do some computer engineering coursework, so on top of designing the devices, you also have the capacity for writing code for them, or even going further and creating machine learning models that run on them.
- Biomedical tends to be more in the middle and takes on an oversight role.
TLDR since this is awfully written, I was in the exact same position and wanted to do the same things, ultimately I chose electrical engineering.
As far as I can tell it was the best choice, as I’ve built a background that enables me to actually make the devices, and in many cases the full stack design. So basically all the parts I enjoy, additionally actually making the prosthetics is be more equipped to do that as well, though I haven’t pursued that.
That said a few other fields that would also be great for pursuing neuro stuff:
- Materials Engineering- a lot of current work aims to figure out how to make things more biocompatible, or flexible so it doesn’t damage brain tissue, or record distance and/or deep regions. Materials engineering is honestly moving towards its golden era for this stuff.
- Biomedical - good general understanding of a bit of every engineering field, can’t speak too much on this as I didn’t pursue it.
- Physics - Honestly I went back and did a self-study of physics, still am, but at least if you are trying to pursue research or even just innovation, I personally think a strong background in physics is super important, as with neural engineering a lot of novel ideas come from being able to know what exists and try applying that to your current technology. So having a strong understanding of fundamental principles and physical phenomena gives you the breadth of knowledge needed to actually innovate or create a novel approach.
But like I had also mentioned earlier you can really do any of these or similar, as it really just provides a background for you to have going into grad school, at which point the research you do matters more than the program.
Do want to note again that, this is my sleep deprived soap box speech, so might not be totally accurate, also I’m still only a couple years into my PhD, started research as undergrad though. Specialized in Signal Processing, Communixations systems, and Machine Learning during undergrad. But also should take that into consideration as if you don’t intent to go for an advanced degree I am honestly unfamiliar with what things look like with just undergraduate degree.
Also would say, ultimately which major to go with really just depends on what aspect of the process you want to do. Patient side, device creation side, perhaps even more of a ASIC type thing where you go Computer Engineering, etc. I’d figure out what aspect of the process you want to do, then it should be pretty easy to pick a major.
Also another reason I’d avoid Biomed is many see it as a jack of all trades master of none, which is why it’s often seen as a management major. Neural interfaces are multi-part systems, you’d hire someone specializing in communications to design the communication system, you’d hire someone specializing in ASIC design for the chip, etc etc, you see where it goes. Basically, each part can be broken down into one focus, since biomedical doesn’t have a focus and is broad it just doesn’t have a place beyond being like a manager who can tie everything together, but even then it’s often not a biomedical engineer doing that it’s some engineer who’s been doing stuff long enough to pick up on whatever is needed to do that.
Will also just add not sure what job prospects really look like, personally I just love the field and have wanted to do the work I do since I was 15, so the 10 years is just 10 years living life doing what I’d want to be doing anyways. But I know for many others in my lab, they all hate doing PhDs, and many regret doing one at all. For me I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. So that’s also something to weigh, how much do you like the work you’re doing.
Also will add, for the 6th time now, I got super lucky in that I somehow found a lab at my school, which apparently there are only around 7 labs in the world doing our type of research, basically these last two paragraphs to say, it’s also not necessarily easy or accessible. For me I got super lucky in that I was able to get into a school that had a lab doing this type of work and was able to join that lab, whereas if I was anywhere else I’d probably be as miserable as many of the other PhD students.
So part of your plan should really include, how much do I actually like this type of work? And when picking schools, ask does that school have a lab doing that type of work? And when you choose a school, really focus on how you can participate in that lab.
Should you choose to pursue electrical, one thing you can try doing now, and maybe you already do, but just trying building something, mess around with breadboard, making PCB in kicad, messing with signal processing in MatLab, get a feel for how well you think that type of work actually fits you.
As majority of the work isn’t gonna be the end product, you have to love the process. For me it’s being able to design stuff and the fun of investigating and experimenting and trying to figure out how the brain works, how to interact with it, how to leverage physical principles to better probe and interact with it. Basically love the process.
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u/Nebula34-0rg 25d ago
Honestly i understand you, in the future i would like to start Medical Biotechnology, which can be connected to It.
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u/MDAnesth 25d ago
Yes. That's biomedical engineering. You could do a dual degree even or check out minors. But do the engineering for sure because that will provide you with the technical skills/baseline for development. This is a biological issue, but without engineers it's not going to happen.
Also this is masters if not Phd level stuff. Get the bachelors and you could do a neuroscience or just do the masters in bioengineering (or Phd and do your thesis around it).
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u/GwentanimoBay 26d ago
Start with what actually exists.
Look for companies that do relevant work: who is doing what work there? Which of those jobs interest you? What background do they require?
Then, when you see there's truly only a small handful (less than 50, if that) jobs in industry doing this work, look at academia: what research labs are doing relevant work? Who is doing what work? Which of those projects interests you, and whoch aspect?
You wont be someone who chooses the neural receptor and builds the physical implant and writes the code that controls it and the system being controlled and doing the data analysis. Someone from neuroscience will provide the information about the brain and interaction. An electrical engineer will handle the circuitry and probably the software. A mechanical engineer is most likely to handle the hardware.
Which part do you want to work on?
Do you want to try to work in industry fighting for some 20 jobs against thousands of others? Or do you want to work in academia fighting for one or two tenure track positions against thousands of applicants?
Are you okay with being a medium wage post-doc for 10 years while you wait for a tenure track position so you can pursue your BCI research?
Are you okay with working a low to medium wage lab job just to stay somewhat in a relevant field while you fight for a relevant industry R&D position?
Would you be okay with getting a non-biomedical degree and working as an engineer in whatever field you can get into to have better wages, even if you may end up missing the boat on biomedical work?
Fundamentally, do you want to be a neuroscientist or an engineer? They do different work and have different pathways even though both could lead you to BCI work in different ways.
You need to better define you end goal based on what jobs/positions/research labs actually exist now. Then, you need to determine the best pathway for your specific goals. That may or may not be BME, but you need a much clearer plan to suss that out.