1.3 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING AT TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

1.3.1 Ragnar Granit Institute

Education in Biomedical Engineering at TUT was launched by Professor Pekka Ahonen in the very beginning of the University’s history. The first post related to education in Biomedical Engineering, an assistantship, was established at TUT on 1 September 1974. The associate professorship in Bioelectromagnetism was established in the autumn of 1975. For the first academic year, this post was held by Niilo Saranummi, D.Tech. In the following autumn, on 1 August 1976, Jaakko Malmivuo, D.Tech., was appointed to the post. Education in Biomedical Engineering was for a long time conducted at the Institute of Electronics as one of its specialization lines. The associate professorship was converted into professorship on 1 September 1986. At the same time, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering was established. A senior assistantship was established at the Institute on 1 August 1988. To honour the late Finnish Nobel laureate, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering was appointed Ragnar Granit Institute in the spring of 1992. On 1 August 1994, the senior assistantship was changed into associate professorship in the field of Biomedical Electronics. Hannu Eskola, D.Tech., was appointed Associate Professor. At the same time, a fixed-term lecturer’s post was also established, and Juha Nousiainen, D.Tech., took up the post.

Education provided by Ragnar Granit Institute concentrates on the application of Electronics, Information Technology and Signal Processing as well as methods of Physics to problems of Medicine. Each of these fields form a separate area of in-depth study in the professional subject instruction provided by Ragnar Granit Institute. The priority fields of the research education provided by the Institute, aiming at a postgraduate degree, include Bioelectromagnetism and Multimodal Processing of Medical Images and Medical Informatics. Due to the internationalization development, English has established itself as the primary teaching language at the Institute, although all the compulsory courses are also given in the Finnish language. A list of courses provided by Ragnar Granit Institute for the academic year 1998-1999 can be found in Appendix 8.

In addition to educating Masters of Science in Engineering (M.Sc.), Ragnar Granit Institute functions as the educator of hospital physicists with a main geographical responsibility towards the University Hospital District of Tampere and the special field of Biomedical Engineering. At the beginning of 1998, the National Qualification Board of Hospital Physicists was transferred from Kuopio to Tampere. In addition to the education of Finnish M.Sc., the Institute has accommodated an International Graduate School since 1992, enabling foreign students with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) or M.Sc. degree to complete a postgraduate degree in the fields of Bioelectromagnetism and Biomedical Engineering.

1.3.2 Theses in Biomedical Engineering

The first Master’s thesis in Biomedical Engineering was completed in 1978 under the supervision of Professor Jaakko Malmivuo. By the end of the academic year 1996-97, a total of 140 Master’s theses has been prepared at Ragnar Granit Institute, covering an extensive range of fields in Biomedical Engineering and Physics. Of the students who have written their thesis, three have not for some reason completed their studies and thus have not graduated as Masters of Science in Engineering. Four Masters of Science in Engineering have graduated from the International Graduate School. In addition to Master’s theses, a total of 18 Licentiate theses (the first in 1982) and seven Doctoral theses (the first in 1983) has been prepared at Ragnar Granit Institute during the entire period. One of the Licentiate theses has been submitted from the International Graduate School. In addition, two Doctoral theses in the field of Medicine have been submitted to the Department of Medicine at the University of Tampere (UTA) from the Institute’s projects. A list of theses submitted to Ragnar Granit Institute and their authors can be found in Appendix 7.