Clinical engineering

University of Missouri
Undergraduate certificate
X-ray of brain
Request more information

Get started with MU

Apply

Overview

At the root of clinical engineering is a passion for applying scientific and engineering principles to help people receive potentially life-changing medical information. With the high demand for certified clinical engineers, now is the time to merge your passions for healthcare and engineering to use complex medical imaging technology and equipment for evaluation, research, patient care delivery, analysis and more. Apply your knowledge to your current job or supplement your education with this 100% online clinical engineer undergraduate certificate program that is the first of its kind in the nation.

Turn your drive into results in this program dedicated to advancing healthcare with optimized medical instruments and healthcare business expertise. As a subset of biomedical engineering, clinical engineering can set you apart in your industry, on job applications or in graduate school. Veterans with advanced electronics backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

A non-credit option is available and offers the same high quality course instruction as this for-credit program.

Quick facts

Official name

Undergraduate certificate in clinical engineering

Campus

University of Missouri

Program type

Undergraduate certificate

Academic home

College of Engineering | Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering

Delivery mode

100% online

Accreditation

Higher Learning Commission

Part time credit hours

16

Part time estimated cost

$11,625.60

*This cost is for illustrative purposes only. Your hours and costs will differ, depending on your transfer hours, your course choices and your academic progress. See more about tuition and financial aid.

A patient lying on CT or MRI, the bed moves inside the machine, scanning her body and brain under the supervision of a doctor and a radiologist. In a medical laboratory with high-tech equipment.

Career prospects

The online undergraduate certificate in clinical engineering will educate and prepare students to work in clinical engineering or biomedical-related jobs and disciplines in research or the healthcare industry. Certificate holders are trained to provide the operational evaluation of biomedical and health systems and products, such as integrated biomedical imaging systems, instrumentation, medical information systems, health management and patient care delivery systems. Certificate holders have job titles that may include:

  • Clinical service engineer
  • Field service engineer
  • Radiologist
  • Biomedical engineer
  • Medical equipment technician
  • Imaging specialist
Burning Glass Technologies. 2021. Salary numbers and employment growth numbers are based on models that consider advertised job posting salary, Bureau of Labor Statistics data and other proprietary and public sources of information for multiple occupations.
6.16%
Employment growth
Burning Glass Technologies. 2021. Salary numbers and employment growth numbers are based on models that consider advertised job posting salary, Bureau of Labor Statistics data and other proprietary and public sources of information for multiple occupations.
$85,000
Median salary

Program structure

The undergraduate certificate in clinical engineering is 100% online: no campus visits required.

Courses are semester-based. Students typically take 1-2 classes per semester and finish the program in 1-2 years.

Course work includes

  • Biomedical engineering
  • Biological engineering
  • Biomedical imaging
  • Fluorescent imaging
  • Biomedical optics
  • Nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging

Delivery

100% online

Calendar system

Semester-based

Typical program length

1-2 years

Typical course load

1-2 classes per semester

Accreditation

University of Missouri is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, one of six regional institutional accreditors in the United States.

Faculty spotlight

Robby Thomen

Robert Thomen is an assistant professor with a joint appointment with the Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering and the School of Medicine’s Radiology Department.

Thomen’s research gives the lungs another look. His team has hypothesized that a new way to see what is happening inside the lungs using hyperpolarized gas will make both treatment and diagnosis more precise. Thomen, who runs the Mizzou Pulmonary Imaging Research Lab, hopes these detailed scans can help researchers investigate, diagnose and treat diseases like COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema.

Robby Thomen, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering
Melissa Terpstra

Dr. Terpstra’s research focuses on noninvasive quantification of weakly represented neurochemicals in 1H magnetic resonance spectra (MRS). This work was pioneered using ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging systems, and is being translated for use on clinical scanners. Dr. Terpstra discovered the presence of the antioxidant ascorbate (vitamin C) resonance using homonuclear edited 1H MR spectroscopy. She is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIH) to study whether antioxidant depletion is exacerbated by Alzheimer’s disease (AD). She is also part of the nationwide human connectome project on aging, which will use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study brain connectivity to study risk and resiliency to Alzheimer's disease.

Melissa Terpstra, PhD
Professor of Radiology, Director of NextGen Imaging and Professor, Department of Biomedical, Biological, and Chemical Engineering
Changyu Sun, PhD

Changyu Sun has a joint appointment with the School of Medicine’s Radiology Department. After earning his master’s and Ph.D. in INSA de Lyon, France and Northwestern Polytechnical University, he did his postdoctoral training at MD Anderson and worked at the University of Virginia as a senior scientist.

Dr. Sun is an MRI researcher interested in developing novel strategies for rapid MRI acquisition and accurate reconstruction. His simultaneous multislice acquisition and reconstruction methods have been applied to cardiac cine, perfusion and strain MRI. His current research focuses on developing novel physics- and data-driven methods using deep learning, parallel imaging, non-Cartesian sampling and compressed sensing for cardiopulmonary applications. The goals of his research are to develop a fast, accurate and automatic MRI workflow for the diagnosis and treatment of patients.

Changyu Sun, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biological and Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering

Learn more about this program