The Global Medical Innovation (GMI) Master of Bioengineering is a one-year, project-focused program that prepares students to enter the medical device industry. The GMI program offers many opportunities that simulate professional practice: team-based projects, direct interaction with industry, the creation of a design history file. 

In the GMI program, students complete two yearlong team-based projects, both which are initiated by an unmet clinical need. In one project, the engineering design project, students apply a combination of the engineering design process and the FDA waterfall diagram process to end with an alpha prototype, going through the steps of verification and validation. In the other project, a business project, students also start with an unmet clinical need, but apply a business-focused process to ask the question “how would we commercialize this technology as a startup venture?” In this project, teams end with a pitch made to a group of potential investors.

The “Global” in Global Medical Innovation means that we teach you a perspective on problem solving that takes into consideration the context of the problem, the patient, and the medical setting. Students are able to see three different versions of this: first, in Costa Rica, then in the Texas Medical Center, and in the Rio Grande Valley.

Students in GMI program start with their cohort in Costa Rica in late May. The program highly values Costa Rica as a teaching and learning location because it is the hub for medical device manufacturing for all of Central America. When students arrive, they participate in a clinical observation bootcamp in local area hospitals and clinics, taught by Rice faculty, in participation with Costa Rican faculty and students. Then, students pitch discovered unmet clinical needs in a Medical Innovation Bootcamp that teaches the early stages of medical innovation. This bootcamp also includes participation from Costa Rican students and is taught by faculty from Rice, Costa Rica, and member of the medical device industry in Costa Rica. 

This program is heavily focused on preparing students for careers after graduation. We measure our success based on students’ success in landing high-end jobs in their desired field, and boast one of the highest rates in the nation by this metric – greater than 85% percent of our graduates have full time jobs in the medical device within 6 month of graduation. We do this through a number of professional development opportunities that are spaced out across the year. Students have the opportunity to attend the SWE conference in the fall for networking and job interviews. All students in the MBE program take a professional development course that includes direct interaction with industry, recruiters, and the creation and revision of key documents that help students mount a successful career search (resume, elevator pitch, interviewing skills). 

We would like to invite you to learn more about our program by spending some time reading about the program on this website, by joining one of our info sessions, or by connecting with some of our alumni on LinkedIn.