Biomedical engineers are designing and building medical equipment, devices and software, and the global coronavirus pandemic will help drive the race call over the next few decades, Florida Institute of Technology President Dwayne McCay predicts.
University officials plan to soon launch an $18 million fitness science center, which will double the duration of the undergraduate biomedical engineering program.
“I think it’s going to increase,” McCay said of the graduates’ call. “This pandemic has shown that not only the United States, but that the world is not well-supplied enough to deal with this kind of problem.”
“One of the plans for this construction is that we will practice biomedical engineers who go straight to the medical school. We will serve medical research and satisfy the wishes of others here. Florida through the production of doctors,” McCay said. .
“I am firmly that the strength of medical studies deserves to be here in this city. But we can’t do it now because we don’t have the facilities. When this 60,000-square-foot construction is built, we suddenly go to move on to the next level,” he said.
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On Thursday night, the Melbourne Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved a site plan for the three-story structure. Melbourne City Council can vote on 8 September.
The source of income bonuses from educational establishments will finance construction, and McCay said design engineering is 90% complete. He plans to talk about innovative plans at an executive committee meeting on Thursday.
The Long-Term Florida Tech Health Science Center will complete the Quad Olin, joining the F.W. Olin Engineering Complex, the physical and biological sciences buildings on the south side of the campus.
In 1997, the New York-based F.W. Olin Foundation awarded a $50 million grant to Florida Tech, an initiative that helped the university evolve from a regional institution to a study institution.
“It’s completely transformative. The amenities that have been provided to our engineering and science students, whether in physical and biological sciences, have been of great help to this university,” McCay said.
“This not only physically complements the quad bike, but also complements the dream he expressed when (the founder of the university, Jerome) Keuper and everyone else started in this position 60 years ago,” he said.
“For me, it’s the final touch of a dream, ” he said.
The average annual salary for biomedical engineers was $91,410 last year, according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Florida Tech offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in biomedical engineering.
Administrators anticipate that the new construction will double the duration of Florida Tech’s undergraduate biomedical engineering program to three hundred full-time fellows on campus, while expanding the pre-medical undergraduate program from 150 to 250 fellows.
Two weeks ago, Florida Tech introduced a student partnership with Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and Steward Health Care.
The first nine medical scholars at Burrell College will get hands-on medical education at Rockledge Regional Medical Center, Melbourne Regional Medical Center and Steward Medical Group Clinics. Specialties come with gastroenterology, forensic psychiatry, ophthalmology and interventional cardiology.
Students live in off-campus Florida Tech housing and have to go to the university’s food service, student union, libraries, and other campus facilities.
The next rotation can succeed in up to 50 medical scholars at Burrell College, McCay said. In three years, an osteopathic medicine school could open in Melbourne, he said.
Rick Neale is the south brevard watchdog journalist at FLORIDE TODAY. Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter: RickNeale1. To subscribe: https://cm.floridatoday.com/specialoffer/