Kharagpur (WB), February 13 IIT-Kharagpur announced on Friday that it would be starting a four-year B.Tech program in Biomedical Engineering.
Admission to the program will be through JEE-Advanced, and the inaugural batch will consist of around 25 students, an IIT-Kharagpur spokesperson said.
The School of Medical Science and Technology (SMST), which will run the undergraduate program, will also be developed into a full-fledged department, he said.
Currently, the school conducts postgraduate courses in areas such as informatics.
Biomedical Engineering has evolved worldwide into a major driver of innovation, supporting advances ranging from imaging systems and surgical technologies to prosthetics, diagnostics, and digital healthcare platforms, the spokesperson said.
Students will work closely with the BC Roy Institute of Medical Sciences, which is located on the campus.
IIT-Kharagpur Director Suman Chakraborty told news agency PTI that the teaching model would function as a "living laboratory", allowing learners to engage simultaneously with academia, industry, and hospital environments from an early stage.
He said the framework would generate real-world datasets for training and enable simulation-based learning, including modules such as surgical practice and disease modeling.
"Faculty from the medical sciences institute will handle the basics of clinical education, while the super-specialty hospital will provide continuous exposure," he said.
Chakraborty said that many biomedical engineering programs in the country remain largely classroom-driven, with limited integration of clinical realities.
The new initiative, he said, is intended to create a template for deeper collaboration between engineering and medicine, both in education and innovation.