New medical engineering honors program underway

Prof. Peter Johnson, Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs,
Starts IIT's first 7-year Medical Program

IIT AlumniNews, Volume 8, Number 1, Fall 1989

by Staff

Web format and photo @ by Prof. P. Johnson

1st 7-year med class, Rae Lynn, Wenda 89

This fall nine students enrolled in IIT's new highly competitive Seven-Year Honors Program in Engineering and Medicine.

What do engineers and doctors have in common?

More and more each day.

In the 1990s and beyond, doctors won't have the luxury of only knowing how to operate stethoscopes and tongue depressors. They'll need to know about the biotechnology that is changing how doctors practice medicine.

IIT and Chicago Medical School developed the Seven-Year Honors Program in Engineering and Medicine, which will give tomorrow's practicing doctors and medical researchers the engineering expertise to invent and apply rapidly changing technology.

"This program's ideal for people who know exactly what they want to do," says Andrew Veleeparambil, who comes to IIT from Matteson, a suburb south of Chicago.

Like others in the program, he is relieved that guaranteed acceptance into Chicago Medical School will eliminate pressure down the road.

"I don't have to go through the burden of applying to medical school," he says.

Chad Attlesey has a unique perspective on the program as the lone IIT sophomore. With a year at the university under his belt, Chad has already been working on his own independent research project at IIT's Pritzker Institute of Medical Engineering with an eye toward a career in research.

The former Rochester, Minn., resident has been working to develop a mechanical arm that might have a number of applications in business and medicine. "I saw the application for prosthetics," says Chad. "The more and more I get into it, the more and more I like it."