Prospective Graduate Students

Prospective graduate students interested in working in our laboratory are encouraged to read the enclosed abstracts for further details on our research. In addition, please feel free to contact us with any specific questions for more recent research and new project areas. Feel free also to contact any of the students in the laboratory (see Personnel) directly for a student's perspective on life in the laboratory and at Berkeley!

Application materials for graduate school in Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley can be obtained at the ME Dept Grad Admissions webpage; most graduate students in our laboratory are enrolled in this program. Students interested in the UCB/UCSF Joint Graduate Program in Bioengineering can find info on admissions at their prospective student website. Currently, one of our graduate students, Wesley Jackson, is enrolled in this program. We encourage applications from both MS and PhD students, although funding from the laboratory is usually biased toward PhD students. Exceptional applicant graduate students are also encouraged to apply for graduate fellowships from agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF GRFP), The Whitaker Foundation, The Howard Hughes Foundation, and NASA, all of which have particular interests in biomedical engineering. The deadlines for most of these fellowships is about the time of typical graduate school applications, although some programs allow applications from first-year graduate students.

Undergraduate students at UC Berkeley are invited to arrange to meet Professor Keaveny during his office hours to discuss possibilites for research openings. Most new openings occur early in the Fall semester. Typically, undergraduates are in their junior or senior year of study, and spend 10-12 hours per week during the academic year in the laboratory. Students are encouraged to sign up for 3-4 credits of ME 199 or ME H194 for this research. A variety of research topics are usually available, ranging from computer analysis to experimental testing. A strong ability to both work independently and collaborate with other students is probably the most important element required for this research. Summer research opportunities also exist, pending funding sources. For other research opportunities in this field of study, students should apply to either URO or URAP programs early in the fall semester of each year.

For those students interested in orthopaedic biomechanics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, the following courses are offered on a regular basis:

• ME 24, Section 4: Freshman Seminar
• ME 176: Orthopaedic Biomechanics
• ME 214: Advanced Tissue Mechanics

For further information about orthopaedics and biomechanics research, please refer to this page of links.