What it’s about:
Majors in agricultural and biological engineering learn to apply principles from the physical, biological, and engineering science to come up with improved methods of producing food, fiber, timber, and renewable energy sources; to preserve environmental quality; to tackle problems affecting plant and animal systems and to develop products from biological resources.
What the study of this major is like:
The agricultural and biological engineering major which focuses on theory, analysis, and design, includes supplementary lab work and project development. In core courses, you explore the nature of biological materials machinery design, and erosion control. You take math, including calculus and differential equations; science including biology, chemistry, physics, biochemistry, materials science, and plant and animal physiology; and basic engineering courses. In addition, you study the humanities and social sciences, and perhaps computer programming and numerical analysis. To enhance your ability to work with others, you sharpen your oral and written communication skills.
Some student becomes disillusioned because they don’t see how the mathematics principles they encounter in their first and second years apply to the major. But self-discipline, commitment, and perseverance pay off in the third and fourth in the upper-level courses.
Majors can generally concentrate in several areas, such as food engineering (which focuses on production, nutrition, packaging, factory design, and preservation); soil and water engineering (irrigation, soil science, drainage, and hydraulic structure design, and erosion control); or machine design (various topics, such as the automation of animal feeding for large-scale farming). Many colleges offer cooperative education programs that provide opportunities for these program after completing the basic engineering course work. Most colleges include a capstone design course integrating concepts from previous courses.
Agricultural and biological engineering programs may vary in the emphasis they place on different areas of the field. For example, programs may stress natural resource and environmental engineering, food systems engineering, machinery systems engineering, or biological systems engineering. In addition, some programs prefer a hands-on practical approach, while others are more academic.
Career options and trends:
Environmental engineer; design engineer; project engineer; product development engineer; soil and water conservationist; irrigation engineer; bioengineer, food engineer.
As the world’s population grows and our global eco-systems become more fragile, the contributions of agricultural and biological engineering will be increasingly important to society. Employment growth for agricultural engineers will be generated by demand for more efficient crop production as well as the use of agriculture as renewable energy resources. Opportunities for biological engineering is expected to grow much faster than average, as demand increases for more advanced in such related fields as medicine, pharmacy, and bioinstrumentation.
Source: CollegeBoard 2012 Book of Majors
Pursuing a post-graduate degree abroad can be an exciting and rewarding exper...
Networking is a vital aspect of life and career development, and studying abr...