Bridge injury biomechanics

Injury biomechanics is a well-known field in automotive safety and constitutes the scientific basis for automotive safety design. All safety improvements made over the last half century use research data generated by workers in injury biomechanics. Wayne State University has an 80-plus year history in injury biomechanics research – including development of the safety windshield, the collapsible steering column and the restraint system – and has an international reputation for advances in this field.

This bridge graduate certificate program aims to provide specialized skills and training engineers will need to address impact biomechanics and motor vehicle trauma in the automotive and defense industries as well as blast-induced injury biomechanics and countermeasures.

Application requirements

Applicants must meet standards for admission to the Graduate School. Students may enroll on a full-time or part-time basis but must complete requirements within three years of admission. Students must hold a bachelor's degree in engineering, or in a mathematics-based science program. A minimum grade point average for regular admission to the graduate certificate program is 3.0.

As is the case with all bridge graduate certificates, students will be permitted to apply all certificate credits with at least a B grade toward the biomedical engineering master's degree if they later seek admission to that program.

Curriculum requirements

This certificate program – offered in both traditional and online formats – consists of 16 credit hours of course work with two required courses (8 credit hours) and two elective courses (8 credit hours). The required courses are in quantitative physiology and injury biomechanics. Other topics explored include mechanisms of injury to various parts of the body from head to toe, human response to impact loading, human tolerance to impact, and the use of both human surrogates and computer models in testing for vehicular safety.

International applicants must complete the equivalent of a U.S. four-year bachelor's degree, including all state and external/internal examinations required for the degree. Some three-year general degrees (from Canada, India, Pakistan, France, Lebanon, etc.) may not be equivalent to a four-year U.S. bachelor's degree. However, if you have completed an honors degree, additional undergraduate coursework beyond the three-year bachelor's degree, or a graduate degree, you may be considered for admission.

If you are applying to a master's program, your minimum undergraduate GPA must be 2.75 or its equivalent in upper division coursework. If you are applying to a doctoral program, your minimum undergraduate GPA must be 3.0 or its equivalent in upper division coursework.

Submit your transcript(s)

To begin the application review, upload unofficial copies of English-translated international transcripts from all post-secondary educational institutions from which you earned a bachelor's degree or higher, including Mark Sheets, if applicable. If you are admitted, you must submit an official course-by-course academic evaluation of your completed bachelor's degree.

Demonstrate English proficiency 

Non-native speakers of English must demonstrate English proficiency by meeting the minimum requirements. You are required to submit an official qualifying score meeting minimum Graduate School requirements. Send official test scores to Wayne State University Graduate Admissions, using the school code 1898.

To begin the application review, upload an unofficial copy of your English proficiency test score(s). Once admitted, an official test score must be submitted to Graduate Admissions.