RICE BIOENGINEERING PhD PROGRAM

Degree Requirements

Degree Requirements

Rice University's minimum requirement for the doctorate degree is 90 semester hours. The PhD candidate in bioengineering must:

  • Complete 24 semester hours of graduate-level courses (500 and above) in foundation, supporting, and advanced topics (The maximum number of hours that can be transferred is 12.); 15 of these credit hours must be designated as bioengineering (BIOE) courses.
  • Maintain an average GPA of 3.2 or higher;
  • Complete 2 semesters as a teaching assistant for six to ten hours per week;
  • Prepare a thesis proposal and present it to the thesis committee;
  • Complete a publishable thesis representing research that is an original and significant contribution to a field of bioengineering; and
  • Pass a public oral examination in defense of the thesis.

No foreign language is required for an advanced degree in bioengineering. About four to six years of study are normally necessary to complete the PhD degree requirements.

Curriculum

The Rice Bioengineering PhD curriculum is comprehensive and provides students with a fundamental understanding of the life and medical sciences, advanced analytical and engineering capabilities, and translational research that transfers biotechnical advances from bench to bedside.

With this educational background, doctoral graduates will be well prepared to:

  • Work as independent researchers;
  • Acquire a graduate-level understanding of foundations in bioengineering and apply this material across a variety of sub-disciplines;
  • Integrate knowledge from different sources to solve a defined bioengineering problem;
  • Acquire deep knowledge in a sub-discipline in which they will pursue their dissertation; and
  • Demonstrate professional skills in both oral and written communication.

The PhD curriculum has three components: foundation, supporting, and advanced topics courses. Collectively, the components afford students broad exposure to their chosen field of research interest. First-year PhD students enjoy the opportunity to rotate in faculty labs their first semester after they matriculate. This helps students identify the bioengineering field that best suits their post-graduate career goals.

Bioengineering Curricula Requirements

In addition to University requirements for a PhD degree, Bioengineering PhD students must complete 90 graduate level credits. These credits must be earned by completing the following:

Core (Foundational) and Supporting (Elective) Courses:

A minimum of 24 credit hours from core and supporting (elective) coursework with high standing (500 level or above), including

  • BIOE 690 (Professional Development for Bioengineering).

BIOE 690 is intended to help prepare the student for their thesis proposal exam. The course should be taken in the student's third semester. First year students may only take BIOE 690 with the explicit permission of the course instructor.

  • Nine (9) credit hours of core course

(3 credit hours from each of the three core focus areas). Courses within the focus area requirements must be met by taking BIOE courses. Non-Bioengineering courses may not count as electives.

  • 12 Supporting (Elective) Courses

Elective courses include courses relevant to the student's research work or necessary for building an overall competence in the field of bioengineering. Students may take supporting (elective) courses in the following areas:

Biomaterial, Biomedical Imaging, Instrumentation, Mechanobiology and Biophysics, Microfabrication, Mcrofluidics and Design, Optics and Diagnostics, Quantitative, Computational and Theoretical Bioengineering, Synthetic Biology and Genome Engineering and Tissue Engineering.

Additional Required Courses

  • BIOE 504 (Graduate Rotation)

Rotations are administered through the course "BIOE 504: Graduate Lab Rotations" and is a required course for all first-year students during their first fall semester. Assignments consist of submitting required documents and forms. It is the student responsibility to submit all documents by the publishes deadlines.

  • BIOE 698/699 (Bioengineering Colloquia)

Students must complete six credit hours of BIOE 698/699. Colloquia consists of a series of seminars throughout the semester. Each semester of colloquial is one credit hour. Students should ideally complete colloquial requirements during their first six semesters of study (excluding summer semesters) by registering for BIOE 698 (fall) and BIOE 699 (spring). However, BIOE 698 or BIOE 699 may be delayed for a semester if the other courses or teaching responsibilities conflict with the colloquial.

  • BIOE 500

Once accepted into a lab, students should register for 1-12 credit hours of Graduate Research (BIOE 500) each semester, including the summer semester, the student carries out research. The student should discuss their anticipated work load with their advisor to determine the number of research credit hours they should register for each semester. In general, research credit hours are based on a 3:1 ratio; the student should register for one credit hour of research for every three hours spent carrying out direct research activities.