Video summary

My Entire Biomedical Engineering Degree in 16 Minutes

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons (by degree/experience theme)

What the video is about

  • The speaker shares their entire Biomedical Engineering (BME) degree journey in ~16 minutes.
  • They describe:
    • The classes taken each semester across all eight semesters
    • The teaching quality, workload, and notable experiences
    • How their path fits their intended end goal: medical school
  • They provide final takeaways about learning and engineering education.

Overall framing: Brown’s approach + medical-school mindset

  • Brown is described as a liberal arts–focused school, not strictly an engineering/tech school.
  • The speaker explains Brown’s holistic approach:
    • Encourages students to take courses across multiple disciplines.
  • The speaker’s stated motivation:
    • They chose BME planning to go to medical school afterward, which may differ from other students’ goals.

Detailed semester-by-semester class highlights (what they took + what they felt)

First Year — Fall

  • Biology seminar
    • Taught by a biology department chair
    • Mostly “chill,” composed of guest lectures
  • Inorganic chemistry
    • Described as rough
    • Weak prior chemistry background (didn’t take AP Chem; only some high-school chemistry earlier)
    • Includes topics like theoretical concepts (e.g., particle in a box)
  • Intro to engineering
    • Described as poorly taught and disorganized
    • Professor “made up the curriculum as we went along”
    • Despite that, the speaker learned practical skills:
      • SolidWorks
      • Matlab programming
      • Hands-on labs in the Brown design workshop
    • Curriculum centered on basic mechanics
  • Anthropology: Culture and Health
    • Introduced concepts like:
      • Placebo effect
      • Power and symbols of medicine
      • Validity of alternative medicines
    • Not very intensive; speaker enjoyed it

First Year — Spring

  • Speaker “challenged themselves” with 5 classes
  • Organic chemistry
    • Doesn’t remember details but recalls:
      • Nomenclature
      • Organic structures
      • Memorizing reaction mechanisms
  • Multivariable calculus
  • Differential equations
    • Core engineering math requirements
    • Later used in other engineering courses
    • Workload: many problem sets (psets) and exams
  • Dynamics and vibrations
    • One of the speaker’s best courses
    • Professor was passionate and cared about students
    • Applied learning through labs/projects:
      • Predator-prey simulation
      • Quadcopter final project
  • Astronomy
    • “Fun class”
    • Speaker remembers seniors taking it for an “easy class”
    • Light details; but enjoyed nighttime star viewing atop the engineering building

Second Year — Fall (third semester)

  • Took 5 classes again
  • Physics / statistics / physiology
    • Described as self-explanatory prerequisites (for STEM majors, large class sizes)
    • Limited student–professor interaction
  • Bio materials
    • Focus: quantifying mechanical + biological properties of medical devices (e.g., stents/implants)
    • Read research papers, did problem sets, and labs
    • Interesting because speaker was into orthopedics
  • Fluid mechanics
    • Modeled fluid behavior via Navier–Stokes equation
    • Labs described as “pretty cool”
  • Design plus Health
    • Interdisciplinary course connecting:
      • Brown + RISD design students
      • Brown medical school students
    • Includes expert talks and a team design project
    • Also visited a local med-tech design company
    • Positively described as a “chill” break from heavy STEM

Second Year — Spring (COVID transition)

  • COVID begins
  • Thermodynamics
    • Only one in-person lab: running an old two-cylinder engine and recording parameters
    • Final project: remote power plant design using Matlab calculations
    • Described as less intuitive/boring compared to others
  • Electrical circuits
    • Building and solving circuits
    • Topics:
      • Laplace transformations
      • Op amps
      • Mentions “four year transforms” (likely intended as Fourier transforms)
    • Labs were extremely time-consuming (about 12 hours to finish)
    • Speaker: one of the hardest engineering courses; uncertain about long-term use
  • Chinese
    • Speaker enjoyed it and encourages others to take language classes in college
  • Biomechanics
    • Took 4 classes instead of 5 due to burnout
    • One of the speaker’s favorite classes
    • Strong integration of prior math into biomedical applications, such as:
      • Stress matrix for bone stress
      • ODE to model drug spread and tissue behavior
    • Transition: started in-person, ended online due to COVID
    • Speaker missed the social aspect of college
    • Summer research abroad plans cancelled

Junior Year — Fall (semester 2 of junior year)

  • Drug and gene delivery (taught by Edith Mathiowitz)
    • Professor background tied to Robert Langer and broader biotech work
    • Content: methods of drug delivery, lots of papers
    • Final grade clarity was uncertain until near the end
  • Education / Intro to human development
    • Child development concepts; overlap with AP Psychology
    • Speaker seems unclear due to subtitle quality
  • Immunology
    • Intro bio major course; needed for pre-med requirements and the major
  • Exercise physiology
  • Chinese (listed again as a fun class)

Junior Year — Spring

  • Biochemistry (major requirement; described as “more chill”)
  • Bio transport processes
    • Using mathematical models to characterize how drugs spread in the body
    • Reminiscent of fluid mechanics:
      • Many ordinary differential equations
    • Pattern in upper-level engineering:
      • Multi-variable calculus / differential equations applied to biomedical scenarios
      • Model → derive an equation → represent physical phenomenon
    • “Take-home labs” using provided data (no actual in-person lab)
  • Healthcare in the U.S.
    • Very large enrollment (>400)
    • Lectures were pre-recorded (not live)
    • Topics included:
      • payer system
      • insurance
      • health care stakeholders
  • Urban studies
    • Speaker mentions an advisor encouraged more humanities courses
    • Topics:
      • urban structures and influence on society, human behavior, culture

Senior Year — Fall

  • Instrumentation design (in-person)
    • Mostly lab-based:
      • breadboarding
      • LabVIEW (visual programming)
    • Key lesson: don’t give up when things become confusing
  • Biomedical engineering capstone (first half)
    • Focus: identifying and solving real medical problems
    • Physicians from Rhode Island Hospital present problems; students form teams to solve
    • Speaker’s critique:
      • too much busy work
      • assignments remotely related to the actual problem
      • not enough time devoted to building/solving the product itself
  • Analytical modeling (taught by the same professor as biomechanics)
    • Topics: statistical tests, “sir models” (likely SIR model), viscoelasticity
    • Lots of reading, discussions, exams, and a final project
  • Seminar for Brown’s eight-year medical program
    • Content included:
      • diversity and representation
      • medical school transition strategies
      • choosing a specialty

Senior Year — Spring

  • Speaker describes being tired/burned out, so took a lighter load
  • Biomedical engineering capstone (second half)
    • Continued from prior semester
    • Finalized project and presented it
  • Social psychology
    • Useful but somewhat redundant with what could be learned from a textbook
  • Additional activities:
    • Research with a professor for credit
    • Research methods class
      • statistical methods
      • process of publication
      • how to succeed in research
      • described as chill and low-key

Final takeaways / conclusions (core lessons)

  1. Most meaningful learning happened outside the classroom
    • Through internships, research, reading books the speaker was genuinely interested in
    • Learning driven by curiosity rather than grades
  2. You may not remember class details, but engineering develops enduring skills
    • Even if specifics fade, the lasting value is:
      • problem-solving
      • critical thinking
      • work ethic from pushing through difficulty
      • confidence gained from handling hard labs and long tasks (e.g., >10 hours)
  3. School choice depends on your end goal
    • If the goal were non-medicine engineering, they might choose a more engineering-focused school
    • But since their end goal is medicine, Brown’s BME path felt ideal
  4. Despite complaints about some courses, overall satisfaction
    • Overall positive undergraduate experience.

Speakers / sources featured (as explicitly named in the subtitles)

  • Edith Mathiowitz (instructor for “Drug and gene delivery”)
  • Robert Langer (referenced as a key figure connected to Mathiowitz)
  • Chair in the Biology Department at Brown (instructor for the biology seminar; name not given)
  • Rhode Island Hospital physicians (present problems for the capstone; no individual names given)
  • Same professor who taught biomechanics (name not given; taught “Analytical modeling” as well)

Original video