Jackie Allar never considered engineering as a career until she heard about biomedical engineering.

Now, she obsesses over things such as hospital visits and developments in medical technology.

"I am like the biomedical engineering nerd," said Allar, president of the Biomedical Engineering Society. "It just amazes me, the huge spectrum of things you can do in biomedical engineering."

Allar hopes for a career in biomedical engineering, but her major is materials science and engineering because MSU doesn't offer it as a major.

Like other biomedical engineering hopefuls, she must declare an engineering major and take a number of classes to obtain a biomedical engineering option at MSU.

"It's a growing field," she said. "It's the new thing, I think, in engineering."

Biomedical engineering is similar to other engineering fields, in that workers in the field solve problems and develop new solutions. But biomedical engineers focus more on medical technology.

Allar said the biggest difference between biomedical engineering and other engineering fields is that research done in biomedical engineering can be applied now, not waiting years for a theory to be proven.

"These things are being thrown out there right now," she said.

Thomas Wolff, associate dean of the College of Engineering, said the decision to offer biomedical engineering as a program of study is still a debated issue, especially for undergraduate students.

"This is still a field where you still want a master's or Ph.D. to work in biomedical engineering," he said.

Wolff added jobs for biomedical engineers are scarce after graduation if a student were to graduate with a bachelor's degree in the field.

"It's not a field that's as well-defined as building cars," he said. "Most of what biomedical engineers do is still evolving."

The society hosted staff development engineer Marc Weissman in the Engineering Building on Wednesday. Weissman, who works at DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., demonstrated a hip implant surgery.

Eric Meyer, vice-president of the society, and about 40 others watched as Weissman drilled a hole into a faux hip bone, and inserted a metal piece designed to hold the bone in place.

It's these type of things, Meyer said, that make him want to pursue a biomedical engineering career.

"As an engineer, I didn't want to design a bumper on a car," said Meyer, a biomechanics graduate student.

"I wanted to help."

Meyer said the society is the only outlet for students to explore biomedical engineering as a career, and that it needs to be a major offered to students.

"The students want it. The administration has to respond," he said.