Request for Action
By the Engineering Curriculum Committee
Instructions
Use this form to request a modification to the curriculum in the School of Engineering. Submit both a
signed hard copy and an electronic version of the document to the chair of the School of Engineering
Curriculum Committee (SOECC) at least two weeks before a regularly scheduled meeting. In addition,
send electronic copies to the engineering reference librarian and to the engineering and science
bibliographer at Tisch Library.
If credit is desired in either the natural science or mathematical science distribution area in liberal arts,
separate approval is required from the Academic Review Board (ARB). Please forward the course
description to the ARB chair.
Role
SOECC Chair
Distribution List, 2011–2012
Person and Link to
Format
Directory Listing
Alva Couch
Print (signed) and electronic
Engineering Reference Librarian
Engineering and Science
Bibliographer
Karen Vagts
Electronic
Miriam Allman
Electronic
Academic Review Board Chair
Joseph Auner
Electronic course description (if
seeking distribution credit)
Department
Current Course Number
(if applicable):
Current Course or Program Title
(if applicable):
Proposed Course Number
(if applicable)
Proposed Course or Program Title
(if applicable)
Name of Faculty Contact
Telephone Number
Email Address
Date
Request Summary
Biomedical Engineering
BME 122
Quantitative Physiology II
Lauren Black
7-4660
Lauren.black@tufts.edu
1/12/12
This request has been approved by the faculty of the department.
Department:
Jan 29, 2012
Signature of Department Chair
Academic year 2011–2012.
Date
Request for Action
By the Engineering Curriculum Committee, p. 2
Indicate requested action(s). Check all boxes that apply.
Offer New Course
Offer New Program
Change Course Number
Change Course Title
X
Change Course Description
Change Program Description
Other:
Course/Program Designation and Description. For new courses, please provide the department
designation, course number, course title, and proposed Bulletin description. The description should be
about four printed lines and written in Bulletin language. For course changes, please provide the
current designation, course number, course title, and course description, followed by the proposed
changes. For programs, please include both existing (if applicable) and proposed Bulletin language.
Proposed Course Number
(if applicable)
Proposed Course or
Program Title
Current Bulletin
Description (if applicable)
Proposed Bulletin
Description
(Cross-listed as EE 122 and ES 122). Course work designed for students
interested in advanced work in biomedical engineering. A quantitative
approach to physiology of the renal system, the central nervous system, the
gastrointestinal system and the endocrine system, through the study of vital
biological signals and their measurement. Anatomy and physiology of each
organ system. Current engineering efforts in instrumentation and basic science
to further study the system's physiology.
Prerequisites
BME/EE/ES 50, BIO 1 or BIO 13 or ES 11, or permission of instructor.
(Cross-listed as EE 122 and ES 122). A laboratory course designed for
students interested in advanced work in biomedical engineering. The course
will involve labs covering nerve physiology, skeletal muscle physiology, and
cardiopulmonary physiology, through the study of vital biological signals and
their measurement. The course will be structured in modules, with labs in each
module focused on 1) measurement and acquisition of the physiological data
of interest and 2) computational modeling of acquired physiological data.
Prerequisites
BME/EE/ES 121 or BIO 115, BME/EE/ES 50, BIO 1 or BIO 13 or ES 11 or
Permission of instructor.
Rationale and Impact. Please describe the rationale and impact of the proposed changes and/or for
offering the new course or program. Indicate ways in which proposed changes affect existing or
proposed programs of study both within and outside your department. When appropriate, indicate
relationships between changes and practices at peer institutions, as well as relevance to department
Academic year 2011–2012.
Request for Action
By the Engineering Curriculum Committee, p. 3
mission and School of Engineering mission and strategic plans.
BME 122 will be a physiology lab course with focus on experimental setup design, data acquisition/
analysis and computational modeling of physiological data. This course will offer a more hands-on
course for students interested in measurements on physiological systems. The rationale is that many of
our students go on to careers where the primary focus of their work is measurement, acquisition and
analysis of physiological data, yet the options for acquiring these skills in a course setting are minimal.
The course will be considered a concentration elective, and thus no major changes to the BME
curriculum will be required.
Resource Requirements and Curricular Adjustments. Please describe the resources required to
implement the proposed changes, including plans for how these resources will be obtained. Include
expected enrollments, class sizes, expected numbers of sections, and frequency of offering for each
class. Describe modifications required in your department’s curriculum or instructor’s regular course
offerings to make the proposed changes possible. Identify whether required funding for resources is
pending and/or dependent upon external grants. Indicate any additions to the Tisch Library collections
that may be required. Where possible, compare resource requirements to existing requirements before
the proposed changes.
The course will require physiological lab systems that have already been purchased from AD
Instruments Inc. The department has funded purchase of 5 of these systems and since the initial
offering of the course will be a single section, we will have an enrollment of 15 students (5 lab groups of
3 students each). The class will be offered each spring semester. There are no modifications required
as of yet in the department’s curriculum, and since this is the second course offered by the instructor
there is no change in the instructor’s regular course offerings. The previous offering of this course was
a lecture based course on physiology and so the new resources required primarily revolve around the
acquisition of the physiology systems which have already been purchased.
Additional Resources. If additional resources are required, please attach a statement from the Dean of
Engineering (or a designee) concerning the resources and how they will be provided.
None
Tufts University Arts and Sciences Library
Library Impact Statement for Undergraduate Courses
Please furnish the information requested below and return this form to: Collection Management Librarian,
Arts and Sciences Library, Tisch. (The Arts and Sciences Librarian is an ex officio member of the
Committee on Curricula.)

Department or Program: Biomedical Engineering Department

Title of course: Quantitative Physiology II

Suggested department course number: BME 122
Academic year 2011–2012.
Request for Action
By the Engineering Curriculum Committee, p. 4

Course will first be offered: Spring 2012

Instructor(s): Lauren Black

Campus telephone number: 7-4660

Anticipated enrollment: 15 students

Open to undergraduates: Yes with appropriate prerequisites
graduates: Yes with permission of the instructor

This course is primarily dependent on:
Texts: (1) LabVIEW for Everyone: Graphical Programming
Made Easy and Fun (3rd Edition), Jeffrey Travis , Jim
Kring. Publisher: Prentice Hall; 3 edition (August 6, 2006),
ISBN-10: 0131856723
(2) Matlab, Second Edition: A Practical Introduction to
Programming and Problem Solving, Stormy Attaway.
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2 edition (August 11,
2011), ISBN-10: 0123850819
Library resources: N/A

Brief description of topics to be covered: The course will cover nerve physiology, skeletal muscle
physiology, and cardiopulmonary physiology, through the study of vital biological signals and their
measurement. The course will be structured in modules, with labs in each module focused on 1)
experimental procedure and setup design, 2) measurement and acquisition of the physiological
data of interest and 3) computational modeling of acquired physiological data. LabVIEW and
Matlab fundamentals will be covered early on and used throughout the course.

Description of any additional library resources needed to support this course: None
Academic year 2011–2012.