Bioengineering

Unique Features

Career Outlook

Bioengineering is a growing sector of the engineering profession. The aging of the U.S. population and the nationwide focus on health issues will help drive demand for better medical devices and equipment designed by biomedical engineers. Additionally, an increased concern for cost-effectiveness will boost demand for biomedical engineers, particularly in pharmaceutical and device manufacturing and related industries.

Employment of bioengineers and biomedical engineers is projected to grow 10 percent from 2021 to 2031, faster than the average for all occupations. The median annual wage for bioengineers and biomedical engineers was $97,410 in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Bioengineering research enjoys strong support from multiple government agencies. NIH has historically led all other agencies in budget increases, consuming today roughly 50% of all non-defense research spending. Healthcare spending expanded from 6% of the GDP in 1960 to 15% in 2000 and has climbed to 20% in 2020, in part due to the aging of the baby-boom generation. The COVID-19 pandemic was another chief driver of healthcare needs. Biomedical advances are increasingly dependent on quantitative approaches as exemplified by bioengineering, and the general perception is that government support for this research will continue to rise (or, at the very least, erode more slowly than other areas). The energy crisis and global climate change threats have also fostered interdisciplinary research across bioengineering with other fields such as biofuel cells, bio-batteries, bioremediation, bio-carbon sequestration, etc., and many agencies such as EPA, DOE, DOD and DARPA support these research directions.