Dec 09, 2024  
2019-2020 University Catalog 
    
2019-2020 University Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Biological Engineering, BSBE


About the Program

The Biological Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.

The world has tremendous need for solutions to problems related to the environment, energy, health, food, and sustainability. Biological systems are related to or at the heart of all of these issues. A biological engineer learns to design and analyze biological systems to develop innovative and practical solutions. Our B.S. graduates are well prepared for careers in the food industry, pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, and bioprocessing as well as entrance into graduate or medical school. Students may select a major and plan of study within biological engineering that is tailored to their specific career goals. Students in this program earn a Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering, (BSBE).  Some areas of focus include:

BioEnvironmental Engineering: Bioprocessing manufacturers, including food and pharmaceutical industries are looking for innovative environmental controls, waste processing, and water treatment to meet corporate sustainability goals and to comply with increasingly strict governmental regulations. The engineering rules-of-thumb and design heuristics based on past practices that have been the standard in municipal wastewater treatment design are less applicable to treating the highly variable waste stream characteristics of specialized industries. In addition, there exists a high potential for identifying value added products from these water streams.

Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering: This emerging field is expected to rapidly advance and open opportunities in biomanufacturing, drug design, human therapeutics, tissue and organ regeneration, bioenergy and biofuel production, bioremediation, and biodefense.

Food & Biological Process Engineering: This is an interdisciplinary field that applies the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering to convert agricultural commodities into edible foods and biological materials through various processing steps. Advances in genetic engineering lead to new types of crops and new processing methods to create value added products.

Pharmaceutical Process Engineering: This program of study is targeted to provide graduates with unique skills and job opportunities to take on roles within all phases of the pharmaceutical industry including research, product and process development, processing engineering, manufacturing, and marketing.

 

Some of the factors that contribute to Agricultural & Biological Engineering at Purdue University being a top ranked program:

  • Multiple opportunities for interaction with faculty in laboratories and in classes
  • Student Competitions, Clubs, Global Experiences
  • Personalized advising and attention from faculty
  • Practical curriculum for industrial careers
  • Great opportunities for scholarships and internships
  • Excellent placement record and starting salaries

 

Watch a video and take a look at some senior projects.  We hope to see you in ABE soon!

Degree Requirements


129 Credits Required

Departmental/Program Major Courses (45 credits)


Other Departmental/Program Course Requirements (83-84 credits)


Click here for First-Year Engineering   Requirements

Click here for Pre-Agricultural and Biological Engineering  Requirements.

  • (If pursuing Bachelor of Science in Biological Engineering, CS 15900 - Prog Appl for Engineers and CHM 11600 - General Chemistry are required to graduate, but not required to complete the First Year Engineering program.)

Additional Degree Requirements


Click here for Biological Engineering Supplemental Information 

Electives (0-1 credits)


  • Electives - Credit Hours: 0.00 - 1.00

College of Agriculture & University Level Requirements


  • 2.00 GPA required for Bachelor of Science degree.
  • 32 Upper division credits taken from Purdue
  • International Understanding Selective     - Credit Hours: 6.00
  • Multicultural Awareness Selective    - Credit Hours: 3.00
  • 6 Credits:  Written/Oral Communication or Social Science and Humanities categories must come from 30000+ courses or above - Credit Hours: 3.00 AND Written/Oral Communication or Social Science and Humanities categories must come from 30000+ or above or from a course with a required pre-requisite in the same department - Credit Hours: 3.00
  • Humanities and/or Social Sciences outside the College of Agriculture - Credit Hours: 9.00

University Core Requirements


  • Human Cultures Humanities
  • Human Cultures Behavioral/Social Science
  • Information Literacy
  • Science #1
  • Science #2
  • Science, Technology, and Society
  • Written Communication
  • Oral Communication
  • Quantitative Reasoning

For a complete listing of course selectives, visit the Provost’s Website.

Prerequisite Information:


For current pre-requisites for courses, click here.


 

Program Requirements


17-18 Credits


16 Credits


17 Credits


Spring 2nd Year


16 Credits


16 Credits


18 Credits


Fall 4th Year


13 Credits


Spring 4th Year


  • ABE Engineering Selective - Credit Hours: 3.00
  • Life Science or Engineering Selective - Credit Hours: 3.00
  • Humanities or Social Science Selective - Credit Hours: 3.00
  • Humanities or Social Science Selective (30000+ level) - Credit Hours: 3.00
  • Elective - Credit Hours: 0.00-1.00

15-16 Credits


Notes


  • Students must have a graduation index of 2.0
  • Consultation with an advisor may result in an altered plan customized for an individual student.

Critical Course


The ♦ course is considered critical.

In alignment with the Degree Map Guidance for Indiana’s Public Colleges and Universities, published by the Commission for Higher Education (pursuant to HEA 1348-2013), a Critical Course is identified as “one that a student must be able to pass to persist and succeed in a particular major.  Students who want to be nurses, for example, should know that they are expected to be proficient in courses like biology in order to be successful.  These would be identified by the institutions for each degree program”. 

Disclaimer


The student is ultimately responsible for knowing and completing all degree requirements.

The myPurduePlan powered by DegreeWorks is the knowledge source for specific requirements and completion.

Foreign Language Courses


Foreign Language proficiency requirements vary by program. 

For acceptable languages and proficiency levels, see your advisor: American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, (ancient) Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish