Strengthen and Expand Our BME Community

We know that our community and collaboration are critical to our future as leaders of the field, and our goal is to strengthen and grow that community by increasing our partnerships with alumni and industry, collaborations for commercialization, and cooperative research efforts.

But these efforts aren’t limited to just faculty and students—all members of our Duke community can grow and thrive as well as contribute their unique perspectives and experiences to enrich our research, administrative, outreach, and teaching efforts.

Prioritizing Inclusive Excellence

Our vision is to adopt a deliberative approach that incorporates inclusive excellence as a foundational part of our identity. The principle that career options, resources, and training are equally available to all constituents will be a departmental priority, contributing to policies and decision-making at every stage of employment and every level of our organization. To accomplish this, we aim to:

Attain a faculty body that broadens our perspectives as a department
Ensure enhanced training and promotion opportunities for BME staff
Provide a supportive community experience for all members of the Duke BME community

Justice statue by Duke engineering alumnus Joe Coates stands in downtown Durham, NC

Warren Grill presents work to an industry rep at an event highlighting Duke entrepreneurship

Enhance Interactions with Industry

We have existing interactions with alumni and industry, but these relationships need to be more fully leveraged for mutual benefit. While we gain from hearing about the “real world” employment and entrepreneurial experiences of our alumni and industry partners, they get the opportunity to learn from us and help shape new generations of research products, commercial endeavors, and workforce personnel.

Duke BME has launched 22 successful startups over the years. Our faculty, such as Warren Grill, often present their budding technologies to potential investors through a range of events coordinated throughout the year.

From idea to reality

Increase Research Collaborations Within Duke

In the face of rapid technological advancements and the increasing complexity of biomedical research, Duke BME is committed to leveraging the breadth of ideas, approaches, skills, and expertise across all our community.

The Duke University Medical Center and School of Medicine (above) are only a couple of hundred yards from Duke BME. This proximity, along with our shared priorities and ambitions, has long served to enhance our enduring partnership and strong collaborations.

Major research centers

exterior of the Duke Medicine Pavilion at dusk

Aaron Kyle looks at a device with a student

Enhance Outreach Activities Through Partnerships With Local Schools

We will build strong, enduring partnerships with local schools and universities to provide STEM training and mentorship for students from middle school through college. These efforts are essential to strengthen the Duke-Durham educational ecosystem and prepare future innovators and professionals for biomedical careers in the Research Triangle.

Duke BME actively engages the community through programs such as the Duke Research in Engineering Program (DukeREP). Founded by BME PhD students, DukeREP offers local high school students immersive, seven-week summer research experiences under the guidance of Duke faculty and students. Designed for students who might not otherwise access academic research, the program has proven transformative: 91% of surveyed alumni pursue higher education at institutions including MIT, Duke, Cornell, UNC Chapel Hill, UC Berkeley, Purdue, and Georgia Tech. Of these, 84% major in STEM fields, with 58% in engineering and 11% in biomedical engineering.

Duke BME also leads Outreach Design Education (ODE), an NIH-funded initiative that fosters STEM identity among middle and high school students through engineering design. Directed by Aaron Kyle, ODE introduces students to problem-solving and innovation via programs such as a Hackathon for middle schoolers, a five-week Summer Design Camp for high school students, and teacher collaborations to develop design-focused STEM curricula. Through these efforts, ODE has impacted hundreds of pre-college students across the Triangle, advancing STEM education and inspiring the next generation of innovators.

Duke BME has a wide range of outreach programs that engage local K-12 students in compelling, hands-on activities. One example, Outreach Design Education (ODE), is led by Aaron Kyle and introduces students to the process of engineering design.

Outreach Design Education

Expand Connections Across the Global Community

We know that Duke BME can be a global force in biomedical engineering. Through international collaborations, we aspire to partner with peers in countries with fewer resources to broaden our perspectives, increase our research and design practice, and deepen our impact. As part of this effort, we aim to contribute to capacity building through knowledge-sharing programs, co-learning, and co-developing curricula to facilitate a two-way pathway for innovation.

The connections we make through international collaborations and Duke’s Global Health Institute will enable us to confront health disparities effectively. The connections have more direct societal and economic impacts, as well, facilitating the training of biomedical engineers within disparate parts of the world who are uniquely attuned to the needs of their communities.

Duke Global Health Institute