Approximately 23.6 million people in the United States and over 194 million worldwide suffer from diabetes. While a cure does not currently exist, biomedical engineering is providing important inroads to understanding and treating the disease and its many complications. The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) has recently established a unique multi-disciplinary center, the Engineering Center for Diabetes Research and Education (ECDRE). In the ECDRE, engineers at IIT collaborate with basic scientists and clinicians at the University of Chicago (UC) with the goal of applying engineering techniques to increase understanding and treatment of diabetes and its complications. The three main project areas are bioartificial pancreas, vascular complications with diabetes, and software development for diabetes.