In September 1997 an educational programme in Biomedical Engineering, unique in the Netherlands, started at the Eindhoven University of Technology, together with the University of Maastricht, as a logical step after almost two decades of research collaboration between both universities. This development culminated in the foundation of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in April 1999 and the creation of a graduate programme (MSc) in Biomedical Engineering in 2000 and Medical Engineering in 2002.

Already at the start of this educational programme, it was decided that a comprehensive course in biomechanics had to be part of the curriculum and that this course had to start right at the beginning of the Bachelor phase. A search for suitable material for this purpose showed that excellent biomechanics textbooks exist. But many of these books are very specialized to certain aspects of biomechanics. The more general textbooks are addressing mechanical or civil engineers or physicists who wish to specialize in biomechanics, so these books include chapters or sections on biology and physiology. Almost all books that were found are at Masters or post-graduate level, requiring basic to sophisticated knowledge of mechanics and mathematics. At a more fundamental level only books could be found that were written for mechanical and civil engineers.

We decided to write our own course material for the basic training in mechanics appropriate for our candidate biomedical engineers at Bachelor level, starting with the basic concepts of mechanics and ending with numerical solution procedures, based on the Finite Element Method.