Research advancements in tissue engineering and drug delivery are revolutionizing medicine. Stem cells, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and biomaterial research have enabled us to envision methods that may radically change how we treat patients in the future.

In this course students are introduced to bioengineering, the discipline that applies the engineering principles of design and analysis to biological systems and biomedical technologies.

Students learn about fundamentals of both biology and engineering, as anatomy and physiology concepts are presented along with the engineering design cycle.  

Using online virtual labs and applications students learn about fundamentals of biomedicine, the field of bioengineering and novel approaches to medicine. They apply their knowledge working in groups in order to complete the course’s final team project “Rescue Helicopter”, proposing a design for the new Red Cross Helicopter Ambulance, to save people from remote parts of Greece, provide life support and transfer the patients to the nearest hospital.

Learning objectives

• Understand the interdisciplinary nature of bioengineering, incorporating principles of biology, engineering, and medicine and its driving innovations, such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, stem cells, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and biomaterials.
• Master fundamental concepts of biology and engineering, including anatomy, physiology, and the engineering design cycle and apply them to solve medical problems effectively.
• Solve practical scenarios and real-world challenges, through virtual labs and applications, to enhance practical skills and the ability to implement novel approaches to medicine.
• Develop teamwork and project management skills. 

One of the first things we learn in our life is counting. How difficult or easy is it though? How can seemingly complex mathematical concepts be helpful or necessary in order to efficiently count when it is not practically possible to count the objects one by one?

Discrete Mathematics and especially Combinatorics answer such questions using patterns, colorings, graphs and many other such tools. Some of them, such as the Fibonacci numbers, can be found in nature and art, but strangely also find application in kilometers-miles conversions or express the number of ways someone can climb a ladder going up one or two steps at a time.

In this course students will explore applications of Combinatorics in other sciences such as Computer Science and Economics, but also come in touch with problems from Mathematical Olympiads and riddles. They will also develop the ability to use abstract ways of thinking in real-life scenarios, and see applications of Discrete Mathematics in problems that scientists are called to solve.