02-542 Biological Circuit Design

12 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course offers a thorough introduction to biological circuit design from an engineering standpoint, focusing on design and analysis methods across various engineering disciplines. It includes a review of key biological concepts, regulatory mechanisms, and models. The course will explore foundational enabling technologies and engineering principles for designing biological circuits, while also addressing design limitations. Topics covered will include the creation of biological circuits that function as oscillators, memories, logic gates, pulse generators, dose compensators or buffering systems, Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) Controllers, adaptive controllers, stabilization of unstable systems, linear and nonlinear classifiers, Hopfield networks, and more. Students taking graduate version will complete additional assignments.

Prerequisites: (03-121 or 03-151) and (21-242 or 21-240 or 21-241) and (15-110 or 15-112 or 02-120)

Offered: Fall 2026, Fall 2025

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