Biomechanics track of Biomedical Engineering Programe will provide basic knowledge and uses of the mechanical methods and techniques to the students that are from life sciences background (biology, medicine, dentistry, etc.) Biomechanics track will also equip engineering students with the understanding of types of problems related to the life sciences and will make them develop solutions to these problems. The proposed programe will enhance the interaction between disciplines and by this mean, help establishment of new partnerships in developing products, services and knowledge in biomedical issues.

Main Duty:

In order to qualify researchers that are from different Bachelor's degree programmes with the advanced research abilities on applications of mechanical sciences to biological systems especially to human.

Biomechanics is the branch of Biomedical Engineering which applies engineering mechanics to biological tissues, organs and physiological systems. In the studies of biomechanics the basic mechanical theorems (statics, dynamics, solid and fluid mechanics, thermodynamics) are applied to biological and medical problems.

Biomechanics, having a wide range of research areas, mainly focuses on statics, dynamics and mechanics of materials (analysis of equilibrium or motion or deformation response if biological structures to forces), and fluid mechanics (the mechanical analysis of flow in physiological systems).

Researchers in the area of Biomechanics under Biomedical programes are especially concerned with the application of mechanics in basic clinical and health related occupational problems. Among Biomedical applications movement analysis, equilibrium analysis, deformation-strength analysis of tissues, organs and biomaterials, analysis of flow mechanics in biological systems (mechanical analysis of blood flow in veins and air flow in lungs), artificial organs (vessel, hearth valve, hearth, joint replacement prosthesis, exoskeletal prosthesis and orthoses, bone implants, and, dental implants and dental prosthesis, etc.) and medical devices could be counted as the top topics. In addition to these, design and characterization of mechanical properties of medical devices (prostheses, ortheses and biomaterials), study of occupational biomechanics, sports mechanics, mechanical analysis of growth, development and recovery periods and mechanical evaluations of developing artificial tissues (tissue engineering) are also covered in Biomechanics. Therefore, studies in Biomechanics have interdisciplinary nature with the contribution of basic sciences, medicine and engineering fields.

The number of research and development studies in the above mentioned subjects and in many other medical applications are very limited in our country. This results in dependency to other countries while preventing the development of our industry. Thus, training individuals in biomedical-biomechanics field would give rise to an increase in the research-development studies and would fortunately bring dynamism to our industry by multiplication of knowledge, product and services on these subjects.

In recent years, many governmental research-support institutes (TUBITAK, DPT) have set new policies targeting biomedical areas in research-development and industrial projects to supply the expectation and demand which comes into existence in our country and to evaluate the potential in biomedical fields, thus exhibiting the importance of this programme for our country.

Middle East Technical University has basic laboratory infrastructure and knowledge in many biomedical fields. In biomechanics, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Sciences with being the centers of mechanical research and education, posses the required background and experience. In these departments, research projects and theses have been carried out in collaboration with medicine, dentistry, veterinary, biological sciences and other engineering programs for years. However, these studies are done under the name of the graduate programs of these departments and consequently continues with weak interactions. The proposed program is expected to establish new collaborations in this field and thus strengthen the biomechanics researches carried out in our university.