Guest Editorial: Master of engineering program in biomedical engineering at Cornell University: Collaboration with external sponsors to prove concepts in assistive devices

As a biomedical engineer, one seldom gets the opportunity to help patients return to health in areas in which the magnitude of the need, or the adoption of the approach, is unproven. Returning to my alma mater, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in late 2004, I was given the opportunity to coordinate the master of engineering program in biomedical engineering. Teaching students about the biomedical engineering arts and the Food and Drug Administration environment, and using projects proposed by external companies and physicians, we began to build a new Department of Biomedical Engineering.