Biological Engineering, BSBE

About the Program

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
• Great opportunities for internships and undergraduate research. 
• Numerous departmental scholarships 
• 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!

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

Biological Engineering Major Change (CODO) Requirements     

Degree Requirements

129 Credits Required

Departmental/Program Major Courses (59 credits)

Other Departmental/Program Course Requirements (69-73 credits)

Electives (0-1 credits)

•   Electives - Credit Hours: 0.00-1.00

Supplemental Information

Click here for Biological Engineering Supplemental Information  

College of Agriculture & University Level Requirements

• College of Agriculture International Understanding Selective  - Credit Hours: 9.00  (Agricultural Engineering, Biological Engineering, Environmental & Natural Resources Engineering - Credit Hours: 6.00)
• College of Agriculture Multicultural Awareness Selective   - Credit Hours: 3.00
• College of Agriculture Humanities or Social Science Selectives (30000+ level)  - Credit Hours: 3.00
• Human Cultures: Humanities or Behavioral/Social Sciences Selective  (Choose from outside the College of Agriculture) - Credit Hours: 9.00
• College of Agriculture Additional Written or Oral Communication Selectives  - Credit Hours: 3.00

GPA Requirements

• Students must have a graduation index of 2.0

Transfer Credit Policy

• Transfer courses listed in the Purdue Transfer Equivalency Guide with specific Purdue Subject codes (e. g. BIOL) may be used to fulfill degree requirements at the discretion of the College of Agriculture. However, Agriculture transfer credit courses listed with “UND” Purdue Subject codes cannot be used for any requirements in the College of Agriculture.

University Requirements

Sample 4-Year Plan

Pre-Requisite Information

For pre-requisite information, click here.

World Language Courses

World Language proficiency requirements vary by program. The following list is inclusive of all world languages PWL offers for credit; for acceptable languages and proficiency levels, see your advisor. (ASL-American Sign Language; ARAB-Arabic; CHNS-Chinese; FR-French; GER-German; GREK-Greek(Ancient); HEBR-Hebrew(Biblical); HEBR-Hebrew(Modern); ITAL-Italian; JPNS-Japenese; KOR-Korean; LATN-Latin; PTGS=Portuguese; RUSS-Russian; SPAN-Spanish)

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.

Consultation with an advisor may result in an altered plan customized for an individual student.

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