At its best, engineering addresses complex societal challenges and improves the human condition. No field of endeavor impacts the human condition quite as deeply and directly as health care.
Advances in computer science, mechanical engineering, and bioengineering, coupled with breakthroughs in the biological sciences and related fields, have the power to enhance medical treatment and health care delivery on a global scale. Here in the Rossin College, and across Lehigh as a whole, a range of emerging research initiatives and educational programs are focusing on improving health care outcomes, accessibility, and affordability.
Headlining this issue of Resolve is a profile of teams from across the college and university who are exploring new avenues in biomaterials, sensors, and electronics and integrating them with communications, imaging, and analytics systems. The ultimate goal of such collaborations are devices, materials, software, and hardware that “can literally change someone’s world.”
The ability to collect, interpret, and use enormous datasets to improve medical diagnosis, prognosis, and cybersecurity is the focus of “Mining Medical Data." Advances in the application of deep learning techniques are unlocking valuable insights from patient data to inform critical treatment decisions.
We also check in with our innovative Healthcare Systems Engineering program, a professional master’s in engineering degree rooted in the complex, often fragmented environment of health care delivery.
Elsewhere in this issue, we have the honor of introducing Resolve readers to Dean Whitney P. Witt, the inaugural dean of Lehigh’s College of Health. This new enterprise will focus on understanding, preserving, and improving the health and well-being of populations. As the College of Health moves toward enrolling students in Fall 2020, Whitney and I share excitement around the possibilities for collaborative inquiry and discovery at the intersection of our two colleges.
The fall of 2020 will see another milestone in Lehigh’s health portfolio, as our Department of Bioengineering begins accepting students into a new major—a B.S. degree in Biocomputational Engineering. Students will explore the nexus of computational and data science, biological sciences, and bioengineering through this new program. This cutting-edge offering positions Lehigh at the forefront of this emerging field.
As you dig into these stories, you may also notice an updated design to our magazine—it’s a bold, fresh look that reflects the many exciting initiatives emerging all around our beautiful campus.
I hope you enjoy this issue of Resolve; as always, thank you for your interest in the Rossin College and please drop me a note with your thoughts and comments.
Stephen P. DeWeerth, Professor and Dean
P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
steve.deweerth@lehigh.edu
