Education & Speaking Engagements
Dr. Boyd's teaching is not separate from his industry work — it is a disciplined extension of it. His courses in risk management, design controls, and product innovation and translation use the same frameworks that govern industry medical device development.
TEACHING & SPEAKING
Training industry-ready engineers in medical device design, risk management, and product translation.
Dr. Lawrence M. Boyd teaches, speaks, and develops educational programs at the intersection of medical device innovation, product development, risk management, regulatory strategy, and commercialization. As Professor of the Practice in Bioengineering and Director of the Master of Engineering Program at Clemson University, he helps prepare students and early-career engineers to contribute meaningfully in the medical device industry.
His teaching draws directly from more than 30 years of experience designing, developing, commercializing, and sustaining medical technologies — and it emphasizes not only technical knowledge, but judgment: how engineers identify risk, make decisions under uncertainty, communicate clearly, and translate ideas into safe, effective, and commercially viable medical technologies.
Graduate-level teaching, grounded in industry practice.
BIOE 4500 / 6500 — Clemson University
Managing Risk in Medical Device Design
A case-based elective focused on risk management as a practical discipline embedded in medical device design and commercialization. The course uses real-world engineering failures to help students move beyond abstract frameworks and into the ambiguity of actual engineering practice — where incomplete information, organizational pressure, regulatory complexity, and ethical responsibility often collide.
BIOE 8600 / 8610 — Clemson University
Biomedical Engineering Device Design Innovation & Product Translation
A two-semester M.Eng. capstone sequence built around real device development challenges. Students work in project teams to define clinical needs, develop design inputs, build design history files, and prepare gate deliverables, while advancing through verification and validation planning, regulatory strategy, commercialization considerations, and financial considerations.
BIOE 8620 — Clemson University
Pre-clinical Assessment & Regulatory Affairs for Medical Devices
A graduate course covering the regulatory, quality, risk management, and preclinical requirements that guide medical device development from product definition through marketing clearance and post-market compliance. Topics include FDA pathways, design controls, ISO 14971 risk management, FMEA, animal study design, biocompatibility, Good Laboratory Practice, and European and international regulatory considerations.
FEATURED EDUCATIONAL WORK
Teaching risk management through real-world cases.
ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition — June 23, 2026 · Charlotte, NC
SHARE: From Theory to Practice — Teaching Risk Management in Medical Device Design through Case Studies
Dr. Boyd's approach to risk management education was presented at the 2026 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference in Charlotte, NC.
The session translated a semester-long risk management course into a focused, transferable teaching module for engineering educators. The activity used landmark engineering failures including Challenger and Theranos to help students connect risk management, regulation, ethics, and real-world decision-making before developing and presenting their own case studies to their peers.
The goal: move students beyond theory and into the ambiguity of complex engineering practice — building the professional judgment that matters in every kind of medical device work.
SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS
Available for invited lectures, workshops, panels, and customized training.
Dr. Boyd speaks and leads workshops for universities, medical device companies, startup accelerators, professional societies, law firms, and innovation programs. Sessions are grounded in real development experience — not theory — and designed to be practical, engaging, and directly applicable to the challenges his audiences face.
Medical Device Risk Management in Practice
How risk management connects to design controls, ethics, regulation, testing, labeling, post-market learning, and organizational decision-making — illustrated through real engineering cases.
From Clinical Need to Commercial Product
A practical framework for translating unmet clinical needs into medical device concepts, prototypes, evidence packages, and commercialization pathways. Built around the same process used in industry.
Design Controls and the Design History File
How development teams document user needs, design inputs, design outputs, risk controls, verification, validation, and design decisions — and why that documentation matters long after launch.
What Challenger and Theranos Teach Engineers
Using two of the most studied engineering and ethics failures of the modern era to understand technical uncertainty, organizational pressure, ethics lapses, communication breakdown, and professional responsibility.
MedTech Innovation and Intellectual Property
How inventors and companies can think about invention, patent strategy, design alternatives, freedom-to-operate awareness, and the relationship between technical development and IP positioning.
Expert Communication for Technical Professionals
How engineers can explain complex technologies clearly to executives, regulators, investors, attorneys, juries, and nontechnical audiences — a skill that matters in every stage of a device's lifecycle.
SELECTED INVITED LECTURES
A representative sample of recent engagements.
Academic and professional invitations spanning bioengineering, business, entrepreneurship, and biomaterials programs.
“Introduction to Intellectual Property and Patents”
Clemson University Entrepreneurship MBA Program, 2026
“Feasibility and Technology Assessment”
Clemson University Bioengineering Design, 2025
“Bone Graft Biomaterials”
Clemson University Biomaterials, 2025
“Introduction to Intellectual Property”
Darla Moore School of Business, USC, 2025
“Inventing MedTech”
NSF STRIDE Program Workshop, Clemson University, 2024
“Bone Grafting, Additive Manufacturing and Orthopaedic Device Innovation”
Duke University Pratt School of Engineering, 2024
“Entrepreneurship, Commercialization and Regulatory Considerations”
Ohio State University Advanced Tissue Engineering, 2024
“Medical Device Entrepreneurship”
University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, 2024
EDUCATION
Four degrees grounding every engagement.
Technical depth paired with engineering discipline — the same foundation Dr. Boyd brings to industry, litigation, and the classroom.
• Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering – Duke University
• M.S., Bioengineering – Clemson University
• M.S., Engineering Mgmt – Christian Brothers University
• B.S., Mechanical Engineering – Clemson University
BRING DR. BOYD TO YOUR PROGRAM
Guest lectures, workshops, panels, and customized training.
Whether you need a guest lecturer, a workshop facilitator, a panel contributor, or a customized training session for your team, the place to start is a direct conversation. Topics can be tailored to your audience — engineers, executives, attorneys, investors, students, or mixed groups.