Director of Engineering Design
Director, BS in Engineering Design Program
Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering email
Hoehn 101C
(205) 934-8400

Research and Teaching Interests: Orthopedic tissue engineering, Transdermal drug delivery, Engineering design and innovation

Office Hours: By appointment

Education:

• B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder
• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Rice University
• Post-doc, Biochemistry and Chemical Engineering, Rice University

Dr. Wick has broad experience developing, evaluating, and validating biomedical engineering systems and devices to solve health-related problems and improve healthcare technology to benefit society. The core of Dr. Wick’s mission is student training and development; having trained more than 90 master’s and PhD students and over 100 undergraduate students in research, design and innovation. He has received the Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellowship, Outstanding Chemical Engineering Professor, the UAB Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring and the UAB Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Learning in a Team Environment.

Dr. Wick is the director of the School of Engineering Design and Prototyping Lab, an open-access workspace for engineering students to work independently or collaboratively on class projects, student organization projects or other project-based activities. Potential uses of the space include collaborative brainstorming, rapid prototyping, testing and evaluation. Equipment and supplies in the design and prototyping lab include rapid prototyping materials, 3D printers, Laser Cutters, a Waterjet Cutter, CNC Machine, electronics components and microprocessors, power tools and hand tools are available to all engineering undergraduates..

To increase opportunities for hand-on, real world design/build project experiences for students, Dr. Wick established Project Lab in 2015. Students in Project Lab are trained in product design and development, innovation, teamwork, engineering validation, and project management. Project Lab clients include Children’s of Alabama Simulation Center, Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, UAB Pediatric Critical Care, BioHorizons, UAB Maintenance, Cahaba Brewing, UAB Pediatrics, UAB Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, Nucor Steel and others. To date, students have delivered over twenty-five products in areas of medical simulation and healthcare provider training, aid to persons with disabilities, and improved workflow and efficiency in manufacturing, commercial and not-for-profit organizations.

Dr. Wick developed and is the Founding Director of the School of Engineering Bachelor of Science in Engineering Design degree program. The program offers breadth in engineering design, innovation and project management and depth in an engineering discipline of interest to the student through an engineering minor. The program includes a 15-hour engineering design, innovation, and product development sequence that incorporates hands-on, project-based experiences throughout a curriculum to help students develop and practice these skills. The program trains students to be a design engineer with an integrated skills set across product development, project management and engineering problem solving to create functional and elegant products and processes. Companies including Honda, ACIPCO, Tesla, ProcessBaron, Cisco-Eagle, Mercedes, Blox, Fitz-Thors Engineering, Electric Machine Controls, Southern Company, Evonik, Hwashine America Corporation, Shipshape Urban Farm, have employed engineering design students as interns. Engineering Design program graduates are employed at Morrow Water Technologies, Hubbell Power Systems, Neel-Schaffer Engineering, Johnson Controls International, TruSpin Nanomaterial Innovation, or have been admitted into top MS and PhD programs.