In my experience, I have also encountered the discussion regarding skillset and opportunities between Biomedical Engineers and Mechanical Engineers. However, I believe that which discipline has the advantage is dependent on the sector of employment the engineer wishes to enter. In my current role, everyone on my team has a Biomedical Engineering background with the exception of one team member who has a Mechanical Engineering background. Despite this difference in background we all have very similar roles and responsibilities. Thus, engineering discipline is not a limiting factor to perform our roles. However, I think that engineering discipline would be a limiting factor in a scientist/laboratory role as the Mechanical Engineer would not have as extensive experience, if any experience at all, in wet laboratories. Therefore if both a Mechanical Engineer and a Biomedical Engineer are applying for a scientist role in a biomaterials lab, the Biomedical Engineer might have the upper-hand due to the laboratory experience required. Additionally, some Biomedical Engineering students end up pursuing a career in medicine. This kind of career is not as readily apparent to Mechanical Engineers as their curriculum normally doesn't encompass this kind of study. On the contrary, for a machinery or manufacturing engineering job, the Mechanical Engineer might have the upper-hand as they may have taken more courses related to building/machinery. For the most part, regardless of discipline all engineers have strong problem solving and strategic thinking skills. Therefore there are a lot of job opportunities that may be applicable to both Biomedical Engineers and Mechanical Engineers including a quality/regulatory specialist, aerospace engineer, and even business executive. Additionally, it is common for engineers to pursue one disciple as an undergraduate and another discipline as a graduate student due to the relatability between the different disciplines. 

Biomechanics is heavily based on continuum mechanics which is the study of how materials behave relative to the applied forces. However, since it has a 'bio' term in it, it definitely requires having some anatomical and physiological backgrounds. In general, I think biomechanics field requires having both mechanical and biological background. In that case it could pertain to make us study the biological systems and how the size, shape, structure and movement of a human body could be effected by the mechanical effects. Therefore, in my opinion, a biomedical engineer with biomechanics track is more likely to understand the field better and become a successful individual as long as they like it. 

I don’t think that there is too large of an advantage between ME and BME disciplines. For the first two or three semesters most engineering majors end up taking many of the same classes and then branch out to their specific focuses later. But there is similar groundwork for most engineers. But one of the main differences between ME and BME is that BME focuses on specific tracks, so comparing a BME biomaterials major and ME major would show more differences in disciplines than a BME biomechanics major and ME major. So there can be more differences in discipline depending on how specialized their tracks are. Overall I wouldn’t say that one discipline has more of an advantage over the other but rather that they have different skill sets which leads them to different employment opportunities.

To expand upon what @tamanna stated. It really depends on what the job position entails. For example, in the case of tissue engineering or other biological based work, it is unlikely that a mechanical engineer could fill that position. However, in the case of biomechanics it is not only possible but even more beneficial to the employer to fill that role with a mechanical engineer. This is primarily due to the difference in background between a biomedical and mechanical engineer. Assuming both have just a undergraduate background, biomedical engineers tend to receive a more broad education due to their field encompassing aspects of biology, chemistry, drugs, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering, however, focuses just on mechanical engineering topics. With mechanics being a major topic in their curriculum, it is logical for mechanical engineers to go more in depth with the topic when compared to biomedical engineers. 

Although biomechanics is focused on the biological system, which mechanical engineers do not study, structures such as bones, tendons, and ligaments are generally represented with a basic shape such as a cylinder or rectangle. In the case of doing mechanical analysis on simple shapes, a mechanical engineer most likely has more experience than a biomedical engineer. 

I agree with Dev, it does really depend on what the job entails. There are many biomechanic related positions in our field of study that require a heavy knowledge of the human body and its biological systems. However, there are others that only require a surface level understanding. Regardless, some form of biological understanding is required. In my opinion, research and development based positions are mainly filled by biomedical engineers rather than mechanical engineers due to their physiological and anatomical understanding. Mechanical engineers can come into play during quality assurance and field service due to the lack of biological theory needed. The difference is, biomedical engineers can easily fulfill both jobs due to their understanding of biology AND mechanics. 

If you consider this to be BME vs ME at bachelors level then Mechanical Engineers always have the edge over Biomedical engineers. BME is much like a "jack of all trades" field where people choose a specific track in their senior years. On the other hand, ME studies concepts and techniques to study motion in depth. They tend to use more math, physics, and software to analyze objects in motion. ME explores concepts like FEM, CAD, thermodynamics, and robotics in depth which are essential for biomechanics. These concepts are hard to learn and acquire crucial skills for BME students in one or two semesters.

I did my undergraduate in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Somewhat echoing cb447, I have found in my job that your employer expects you to perform the role the same regardless of your technical background. In my job in a Chemical Plant, I started with traditional mechanical engineering roles but found myself in a Chemical Engineer's position. Recruiting was different for me though, and I wasn't even considered for mechanical engineer positions for jobs where I didn't list that major first. Classwise, the main differences I saw were:

- Larger focus on systems engineering for ME

- Larger focus on Physiology for BME

- BME's curriculum was more broad and tried to cover more disciplines than ME

From a biomechanics perspective, I think the ME's focus on physics might give them a slight advantage for dynamics modeling and more tensor based applications. But in terms of immediately understanding the context of a force and how it would affect the body, the BME curriculum would be advantageous. Outside of being recruited for a job, however, it's a wash in my opinion.

From my experience in the job search for the past 6 months, mechanical engineers definitely have an advantage over biomedical engineers. At the bachelors level strictly; once a BME specializes their skillset differs widely from an ME. As others have mentioned before, it entirely depends on the position one is looking for. Working in a wet lab with cell cultures would be foreign to an ME, but even a BME with a specialty in Biomechanics would have the background to at least jump into the material.

On the other hand, from a hiring perspective; why would a company hire a more specialized engineer who may demand more pay due to this specialty? If a company is hiring for a generalized R&D team, why not hire the ME in addition to a BME with a masters? Logistically, those with a bachelors in BME are at a disadvantage at the entry level; jack of all - master of none. Hence, we are here. 🙂

BME has this sort of reputation for being "a little bit of everything" which can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, someone with a background in BME would be able to add a different perspective to a Biomechanics project. Like stated previously by @Tamanna, we can't ignore the "bio" in Biomechanics. Those with BME backgrounds will definitely have more of an understanding with topics such as material biocompatibility, the anatomy of the human body, and also topics such as chemical and electrical engineering. On the other hand, most jobs in Biomechanics require a strong background in physics and CAD/CAM programs such as SOLIDWORKS, AutoCAD, and Creo. Topics like those are what ME undergrads are based on, and while having experience in other areas would be a plus, nothing will beat out the fundamentals. During my undergrad in BME, my track was Biomechanics. If I were to go back, I would've went into ME and done some BME classes as electives.

Being a Mechanical Engineer, pursuing my masters in BME, I personally find it hard to keep up with the Bio part of Biomechanics. When it comes to working in wet labs as @cb447 has mentioned, it becomes very tricky for a mechanical engineer to understand the standard procedures. Whereas, in tracks of Biomechanics, Mechanical engineers are at an advantage as we, have a better understanding of forces, locomotion and moment. 

In my opinion, if someone wants to go for industry jobs like Quality assurance engineering in the field of biomechanics, it is better to do his/her BS in mechanical and then MS in BME. In general, I believe a person with a Mechanical BS degree will have a higher depth of knowledge in mechanics comparing a BS in BME holder. And the additional MS in BME will help a mechanical engineer to apply his/her acquired knowledge in biomechanics. However, it may vary if someone is willing to go for R&D jobs or academic research positions. In that case, the expertise in the confined research area is more favorable.

From my own experiences, I can definitely attest to the fact that ME has more of an advantage in the manufacturing/designing space than BMEs. I currently work as an intern at a company that manufactures surgical products and I can tell that I am not as suited for an engineering at this company as compared to a mechanical engineer. From the curriculum that we have with BME, we get little exposure to the basic ideas in our chosen tracks but it is not enough to fully excel in industry.

Out of all the tracks that BME provides, I'd say the mechanical track is the one that prepares someone most for being an engineer because it teaches you statics, CAD, fluids, and thermodynamics. But these are not close to the amount of classes that a mechanical engineer would take. Having fundamental ideas of these concepts is what is needed for a manufacturing space type job because it involves analyzing the process it takes to develop a good quality medical part. For an example that I've experienced, there was a problem where there was leaking after the welding and heating of two plastic components together meant to hold liquid. Thus, when analyzing the cause of this leak, one had to know the effects of heat and pressure on the plastic. 

Choosing a track in bioinstrumentation, which is what I did, does not leave someone with the electrical knowledge to actually develop circuits and computer systems. It teaches you the basics on electronics and digital systems but not enough to understand how electronic systems work as much as an electronic/computer engineer. 

The sad truth is that a bachelors in biomedical engineering does not mean much when looking for a job in the manufacturing space(even at a medical company). Companies prefer to hire people with mechanical engineer degrees because it teaches more about the space compared to biomedical engineers. 

@atk27njit-edu 

I've definitely seen a similar pattern between ME vs BME at my own work, but I think the ability of a BME is something you can't downplay when compared to ME. For starters while I do agree that BME doesn't specify the exact focus of where you'd like to go, it does however provide flexibility in learning skills outside your inherent major. No doubt that ME would have a higher depth of knowledge but that's dependent on knowing your exact destination. More often than not industry teaches more than academics, and having the fundamental ability to adapt to any scenario is something I've noticed more and more with my own manager (who did BME) compared to the others who are ME. I've learned more within a week at work than a month at school, and compared to all my ME colleagues I've been able to adapt to it faster. And the benefit is I have a foot in the door to understand if this is what I want to do, compared to others who have to take time to get there and then realize. 

Now to say BME doesn't have flaws is incorrect, Like many posts have argued it'll be wiser to get a undergrad in ME and take BME electives and this is coming from a person who did do a undergrad in BME to the interest of biomechanics. The reason I state this could be my own focus of landing in a field of robotics, but simply put biomechanics is more than just mechanics being integrated into bodily systems. Its a combination of understanding the biological effects of material selection, the mechanics of both the integrated system to the body, while considering further regulatory pressure within development. ME solves the mechanical knowledge, but the boundary conditions of a device play just as much as the device itself and therefore envision your goals within biomechanics as mechanics surrounded by biology, you see the picture to take electives for the boundary condition and focus on the main goal as ME. 

I'd also argue that BME as a masters would be better than ME as masters simply because the focus of the undergrade is to develop fundamental knowledge, while masters/PhD focus on specifying your interest. 

All this is really dependent on where you'd like to go, and if your lucky to know early on then the answer becomes clear. Hence why for me it took a while, and why I'd argue BME allowed me to continue to learn where I want to be, and how I can supplement my focus.