Courses & research | Biomedical Signals & Systems

During your Master’s in Electrical Engineering, you will earn 120 EC within two years. In addition to the two compulsory courses for all master’s students in Electrical Engineering, you will take four mandatory specialisation courses to develop expertise in biomedical engineering. You will also take elective courses to deepen your knowledge or broaden your expertise by exploring related disciplines. In your second year, you will do an internship and conduct research for your master’s thesis.

European Credit Transfer System

Study workload at Dutch universities, and in the European Union as a whole, is represented in EC, also known as ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System). In the Netherlands, each credit represents 28 hours of work.

Structure

Year 1	Number of EC
Philosophical and societal courses For all Master’s in Electrical Engineering students.	5 EC	Perspectives on Engineering Design Philosophy of Engineering: Ethics
Mandatory specialisation courses For all students in Biomedical Signals and Systems.	20 EC	Biomedical Signal Acquisition Advanced Techniques for Signal Analysis Bioelectromagnetics Neurophysiology
Electives and homologation courses You can choose courses that match your interests and career ambitions. Also, you can take elective courses from other specialisations of the Master’s in Electrical Engineering or related master’s programmes. You will do this in consultation with your mentor.	35 EC	Suggested elective courses: Clinical Research Methods Biological Control Systems Control System Design for Robotics Machine Learning I Technology for Health Biostatistics Machine Learning II Robotics for Medical Applications Lab on a Chip Optimal Estimation in Dynamic Systems Human Movement Control Biomechanics of Human Movement Dynamic Behaviour of Neuronal Networks
Year 2	Number of EC
Internship	20 EC	In the second year, you will do an internship preparing you for the professional field.
Master’s thesis	40 EC	In the final three quarters, you will join a research group to complete your master’s thesis.
Total EC	120 EC

or meet online with a student and gain first-hand experience!

Internship

In the second year of your Master’s in Electrical Engineering, you will do an internship. That way, you can apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired during your studies at a company that designs and manufactures medical devices, biotechnology company, rehabilitation centre, or medical equipment manufacturer. The EEMCS faculty at the University of Twente has connections with numerous research institutes and healthcare-related organisations where you can do your internship.

Previous students have done internships at:

Stimulation device companies, such as Medtronic and Boston Scientific
Big data analytics and eHealth companies, such as Innovation Sprint
TMSi and other companies that develop equipment for physiological signal recording

Master's thesis

You will complete your Master’s by writing your master’s thesis. You can conduct research within the research group Biomedical Signals and Systems (BSS) or do an external master’s thesis at a company. The BSS group offers a wide range of research projects, such as combining radio and motion sensor data to measure how people walk to aid medical rehabilitation, diagnosis, or treatment of diseases. Another possible assignment is using computational modelling to study Parkinson’s pathophysiology and how techniques, such as DBS, tACS, and cueing, affect it.

As part of your master’s thesis, you can undertake a research project such as:

Developing a fully automatic system based on machine learning to detect clinical deterioration in postoperative patients
Creating and validating an algorithm to detect and classify sleep apnea
Developing a coaching platform for conditions like type 2 diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or heart failure

Career perspectives