George Wodicka, Ph.D.

Abstract

If the 20th century was the age of mapping and controlling the external world, the 21st century is the biomedical age of mapping and controlling the biological internal world. The biomedical age is bringing new technological breakthroughs for sensing and controlling human biomolecules, cells, tissues, and organs, which underpin new frontiers in the biomedical discovery, data, biomanufacturing, and translational sciences. This article reviews what we believe will be the next wave of biomedical engineering (BME) education in support of the biomedical age, what we have termed BME 2.0. BME 2.0 was announced on October 12 2017 at BMES 49 (https://www.bme.jhu.edu/news-events/news/miller-opens-2017-bmes-annual-meeting-with-vision-for-new-bme-era/). We present several principles upon which we believe the BME 2.0 curriculum should be constructed, and from these principles, we describe what view as the foundations that form the next generations of curricula in support of the BME enterprise. The core principles of BME 2.0 education are (a) educate students bilingually, from day 1, in the languages of modern molecular biology and the analytical modeling of complex biological systems; (b) prepare every student to be a biomedical data scientist; (c) build a unique BME community for discovery and innovation via a vertically integrated and convergent learning environment spanning the university and hospital systems; (d) champion an educational culture of inclusive excellence; and (e) codify in the curriculum ongoing discoveries at the frontiers of the discipline, thus ensuring BME 2.0 as a launchpad for training the future leaders of the biotechnology marketplaces. We envision that the BME 2.0 education is the path for providing every student with the training to lead in this new era of engineering the future of medicine in the 21st century… Continue reading.

Culture of innovation helped distinguish biomedical engineering program

Simply saying George Wodicka is a big thinker would undersell what he accomplished in two-plus decades leading Purdue’s biomedical engineering program.

His thinking has been bigger than big, transforming a small research center into the renowned Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, whose work impacts millions of patients worldwide… Continue reading.

Purdue University’s Board of Trustees on Friday (Oct. 14) ratified the headship named for orthopedics pioneer Dr. Dane A. Miller and appointed George Wodicka as the Dane A. Miller Head of Biomedical Engineering.Wodicka is founding head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. He joined Purdue in 1989 as assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Under his leadership the Weldon School has grown to prominence including an intellectual property portfolio of more than 100 issued U.S. patents, with more than half licensed to Indiana medical device companies.He conducts a translational research program in the area of biomedical acoustics – the application of sonic technologies toward the solution of problems in clinical medicine. His research has been supported by government agencies and private foundations, resulting in numerous F.D.A.-approved medical devices through startup company formation and corporate partnerships. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, as well as a Guggenheim Fellow.

George Wodicka, head of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and a professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering, is the recipient of the 2010-2011 Outstanding Commercialization Award for Purdue University Faculty.

The award is given annually to a faculty member in recognition of outstanding contributions to, and success with, commercializing Purdue research discoveries. It was established with an endowment gift from the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership Foundation.

Under Wodicka’s direction, the Weldon School has built upon a legacy of discovery and translational research to improve patient care through company partners such as Cook Inc. Licensed technologies are improving the practice of medicine in areas including wound care, surgery, cardiovascular and orthopaedic.