New faculty member returns, bringing experience in biomedical engineering education, curriculum development and undergraduate program accreditation.
The University of Michigan Department of Biomedical Engineering welcomes Nicole Ramo, Lecturer III, back to Ann Arbor, where she will contribute to the department’s undergraduate education mission through teaching in biomechanics and design.
Ramo, who previously served as a Biomedical Engineering Postdoctoral Instructional Fellow at U-M, returns to the department with a strong background focusing on biomedical engineering education, soft tissue biomechanics, curriculum development and ABET accreditation. In her new role, she will help teach courses in the biomechanics sequence and design curriculum, including the sophomore-level biomechanics course and junior design.
“Both in the fall and long term, I’ll be helping with the biomechanics sequence as well as design classes,” Ramo said. “That’s where my background is, where my teaching interests are, and where I plan on contributing the most.”
Ramo’s path to biomedical engineering began in Michigan. Originally from the state, she earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University in Flint, where the university’s co-op model helped spark her interest in research.
“I had sort of a traditional engineering background,” Ramo said. “I’m from the state of Michigan originally and did my undergraduate work at Kettering University in Flint. Through the co-op program, I became really interested in research, specifically orthopedic biomechanics, and that motivated me to attend graduate school.”
She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Colorado State University, where her experiences as a teaching assistant helped shape her career direction.
“While I was a graduate student, I served as a TA a lot, and I absolutely loved it,” Ramo said. “When I was finishing my Ph.D., I was trying to decide if I wanted to do the traditional R1 research postdoc route, but I was also looking at teaching-focused positions.”
That search led her to U-M BME, where she found what she described as “the perfect blend” — a postdoctoral role focused on engineering education and international curriculum development. As part of a collaborative project between U-M and Shantou University in Shantou, China, Ramo worked on curriculum development and ABET accreditation preparation for a new English-taught biomedical engineering undergraduate program.
Ramo was one of three postdoctoral fellows brought into the project. During her first year, she immersed herself in U-M BME’s undergraduate curriculum, observing courses and learning how the program was structured.
“We spent a year in Ann Arbor becoming as familiar as we could with the undergraduate curriculum, how it was structured and the motivation behind that structure,” she said. “We sat in and observed a lot of undergraduate classes, and that was really informative for my own teaching style.”
During that time, Ramo also engaged with U-M’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CLRT) and was exposed to formal engineering education research through the College of Engineering’s developing engineering education graduate program.
“I was able to observe a lot of faculty, both tenure-track faculty and lecturers, and really see their strengths in the classroom and the innovative things they were trying,” she said.
She later joined West Chester University of Pennsylvania, where she helped develop a new biomedical engineering program and supported the program through its first ABET accreditation cycle. While at West Chester, she served as a co-principal investigator on the institution’s S-STEM award, “Increasing the Persistence of STEM Majors through Nanoscience-Themed Activities that Support Academic, Professional, and Personal Engagement and Development.” In that role, she led focus groups with S-STEM scholars to identify and reduce barriers to student success as future engineers, scientists and leaders.
Ramo most recently spent a year at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, an undergraduate-focused STEM institution in Terre Haute, Indiana. When the opportunity arose to return to Michigan, she said it felt like the right fit both professionally and personally.
“I still have connections from my days as a postdoc at U-M and I’m familiar with the undergraduate curriculum, so it was a good move for me career-wise and for my family,” Ramo said.
As she transitions back to U-M BME, Ramo said one of her goals is to bring the close-knit, student-centered environment she developed in smaller undergraduate-focused programs into U-M’s larger classroom settings.
“My class sizes at my previous institutions were 30 to 40 students, so the larger class sizes at Michigan will definitely be an adjustment,” she said. “But I’m hoping to create the same sense of community and caring that I’ve been able to create in smaller classes.”
A key part of that approach, she said, is helping students understand that challenge and uncertainty are natural parts of learning — especially in a field as broad and interdisciplinary as biomedical engineering.
“STEM students often struggle with imposter syndrome,” Ramo said. “I want to remind students that struggling is a normal and necessary part of the learning process. Every topic you learn about in biomedical engineering is not going to come easily to you, and that shouldn’t be your expectation.”
She added that when students encounter difficult material, she wants them to see those challenges not as evidence that they do not belong, but as expected moments in the process of becoming an engineer.
“When you hit those challenges, I don’t want that to be internalized as, ‘I don’t belong,’ or, ‘I’m not good enough,’” Ramo said. “I want it to be understood as a necessary and expected part of the learning process.”
Ramo also emphasizes transparency in her teaching. She wants students to know exactly what is expected of them so they can focus their energy on learning and meeting course objectives.
“I don’t want students guessing about what they need to know to be successful in my class,” she noted. “I would rather they focus that energy on meeting course objectives.”
As she rejoins U-M BME, Ramo said she is excited to contribute to a department and university she has long admired.
“The University of Michigan in general, Michigan Engineering and BME, specifically, have great reputations,” Ramo said. “I’m excited to join that and be a part of contributing to it.”