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What is Biological and Agricultural Engineering?

Biological and Agricultural Engineering is an evolving discipline that works at the interface between living systems and engineering.

For over a century, agricultural engineers have provided engineering for food, feed and fiber production and utilization around world. They have traditionally provided solutions in the areas of machinery, soil and water, processing, structures, environment and many other areas. While their history is rooted in their service to agriculture, their expertise has continued to grow into many other related areas.

The ever-increasing opportunities for engineering in the revolution of biotechnology, genetic engineering, biomedical and bioprocess engineering are phenomenal. Applications are common in value-added processing; environmental and natural resources management; biorenewables and biofuels; genetic modifications of plants, animals and microbes; health care and medical devices; biotechnology scale-up; bioremediation; biological and fermentation processes; pharmaceuticals and food safety. Even in the more traditional settings of agriculture, the practicing engineer today and in the coming decades must have greater exposure to life sciences sufficient to understand fundamental biological principles and processes. Biological Engineering is filling this new need.