<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I heard of this major at the university of minnesota and I think it sounds really exciting and interesting! Does anyone know anything about bioproducts engineering or biological engineering for that matter? Any other schools in the midwest who offer something along the lines of this major? Thanks!</p>
<p>I’ve been considering this too. I know my school’s Biosystems Engineering reflects more of the agricultural side of things like irrigation and all that hoorah. But since I’m technically not in the major, nor have I taken the classes, I can’t say what the “biological” part of this major is (it’s pretty interdisciplinary also, with some mechanical engineering and chemical engineering courses as well). I also have no idea what Bioproducts Engineering is. What is it that interests you in this major?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if University of Minnesota is ABET accredited for this major, but I know mine is. If you click on the Four-Year Plan in the link below, it’ll show you the coursework. All other ABET accredited Biosystems Engineering programs should have roughly the same coursework.</p>
<p>[Biosystems</a> Engineering - Degree Search: Explore the UA’s Degree Plans](<a href=“http://degreesearch.arizona.edu/major/biosystems-engineering]Biosystems”>http://degreesearch.arizona.edu/major/biosystems-engineering)</p>
<p>I know I was considering this because it sounded like it dealt with nature. It does… kind of. Mainly farms. I feel that a lot of this job could be done with other majors in engineering. If it’s nature that interests you, I would suggest Environmental Engineering, which is more about remediation of waste treatment, air/water quality, etc.</p>
<p>This field is quite broad, but it basically boils down to produces fuel, chemicals and other products from biomass. There is a lot more to the field but that encompasses quite a large amount of it. I am actually doing an REU right now in the biosystems department at Auburn University. In the group there are chemical engineers, environmental engineers, agricultural engineers etc so your major does not even matter as much.</p>
<p>You can check out Auburns Biosystems page, [About</a> BSEN](<a href=“http://www.eng.auburn.edu/bsen/about/index.html]About”>About Biosystems Engineering) for more info.</p>
<p>One school you could check out is Wisco, I’m not sure what they have along the lines of majors but a number of their professors do research in this area.</p>
<p>Hey taytay!</p>
<p>I am a BBE (Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineer) Junior at Minnesota. I think the major is great! Personally, I wanted to do something close to Chemical Engineering, but more environmentally friendly. That’s what BBE is. They just don’t use petroleum. There’s 3 tracks you can choose to follow:
-Bioproducts engineering
-Food engineering
-Ecological/ environmental</p>
<p>Bioproducts, the one I know most about, is probably the closest to Chemical though. I compared our four-year plans, and they’re very similar. The only differences are that the ChemE’s take more polymer type classes, and we take more biomass type classes. Otherwise we both take Thermo, Mass and Energy Balances, Fluid Mechanics… etc.</p>
<p>We also mostly work with the regular foresty products like paper and such, but there’s also the cooler stuff like biodegradable plastics, biofuels, and much more (if you email me I can tell you more about it, but I should really do some homework now!). There’s this new professor also doing nanobiotechnology (I don’t know too much about it though)- but he’s super cool! We have new research in all sorts of interesting areas!!</p>
<p>I think this is a cool major that I’ll feel good doing, so that’s why I picked it. Also, at a career fair I just went to, I handed all 15 resumes out that I brought. I even had some extra companies that wanted my resume-- but I had none left! It’s amazing how more and more companies are trying to “go green”. They want their products to be more sustainable and biodegradable. That’s where we come in.</p>
<p>It’s true that you can probably do that with ChemE’s major of course (incase you change your mind, this will be a safer choice, as it’s more broad), and environmental might be good if you are looking to clean up the messes the ChemE’s make… But personally this was a great fit for me. And it’s fairly new, so that’s probably why you haven’t heard much about it. I do recommend ChemE if you’re up for it though. There will always be lots of employment for them, especially at UMN! So it’s up to you… Do what feels right!</p>