Are you interested in protecting the environment or structural design, want to be an engineer, and are looking for an alternative program to Civil Engineering? The Biological Engineering major may be just the right choice for you!
A student in Biological Engineering chooses from three options:
1. Natural Resource Engineering option
Design of protection systems to reduce soil, nutrient, and chemical run-off, stormwater control, bioremediation and other biological waste treatments such as composting, biogas production, and wetland construction.
2. Agricultural Engineering option with emphasis on Structural Design
Structural analysis and design of buildings and facilities, primarily utilization of engineered wood products.
Agricultural Engineering option with emphasis on Machinery Systems
Design of fluid power systems for power transmission and motion control, as well as power generation for off-road mobile equipment, food processing facilities, and feed handling.
3. Food and Biological Process Engineering option
Production of value-added products by using microbial fermentation for food, feed, and pharmaceutical industries. Unit operations, and heat and mass transfer are emphasized for the design of food processing and manufacturing systems, to bring food from the farm to the table with minimal nutritional losses. Includes development of bioproducts such as bio-based energy.
Program Comparison
The two majors require courses that are common and can be used for either program. Certain first and second year courses that are unique to Civil Engineering can still be used if a student switches to Biological Engineering, which has a great deal of flexibility in using credits from other engineering programs. This is illustrated in the tables below:
First and second year courses that are common to both programs
| ENGL 15 - Composition & Rhetoric | ECON 102, 104 - Economic Principles |
| CHEM 110 - Chemical Principles I | First Year Seminar |
| CHEM 111 - Experimental Chemistry I | PHYS 211 - Mechanics |
| MATH 140 - Calculus I | PHYS 212 - Electricity and Magnetism |
| MATH 141 - Calculus II | MATH 251 - Differential Equations |
| EDSGN 100 - Intro. to Engineering Design | EMCH 211 - Statics |
| CAS 100A/B - Effective Speech | EMCH 212 - Dynamics |
| CE 360 - Fluid Mechanics | EMCH 213 - Strength of Materials |
| EDSGN 100 - Intro. to Engineering Design | IE 424 or STAT 401 - Statistics |
| General education requirements are the same, including GA, GS, GH, GHW | |
| Courses specific to the Civil Engineering Major can be applied to the Biological Engineering Major as follows: | |
| Course taken for CE: | Counts in BE as: |
| GEOSC 1 - Physical Geology | Basic or Biological/Env. Science Elective |
| MATH 220 - Matrices | Technical Elective (up to 3-6 credits)* |
| CMPSC 200 or 201 - Programming | Technical Elective (up to 3-6 credits)* |
| ME 201 - Thermal Science | ME 300 -- Thermodynamics |
| Other CE courses | Engineering Science/Design (up to 6 credits) |
| *3 technical elective credits for Natural Resource Engineering and 6 technical elective credits for Agricultural Engineering Option | |
| With the BE major, the Environmental Engineering minor can be accomplished without taking extra credits if the student plans carefully with help from a BE advisor | |
