Overview of Biological and Agricultural Engineering discipline through case studies and engineering design problems; introduction to engineering design utilizing computer programming, 3-D computer-aided modeling an 2-D engineering drawings; introduction to manufacturing processes.

Fundamental engineering concepts related to agricultural systems including the environment (soil, water, and air), plant and animal production systems and processing, and associated machines and facilities; application of techniques for data collection and analysis to problems in biological and agricultural engineering; design of experiments and communication of experimental results.

Fundamentals of microbiology and biochemistry as they apply to biological and agricultural engineering systems to produce useful products and/or benign wastes; topics include microbiology, chemistry of biomolecules, microbial metabolism, bioenergetics, kinetics, mass transfer, bioreactor design, bioprocesses, and downstream processing.

Applications of conservation principles and stress/deformation relationships for continuous media to structural members; axially loaded members; thin-walled pressure vessels; torsional and flexural members; shear; moment; deflection of members; combined loadings; stability of columns; nonsymmetrical bending, shear center; indeterminate members; elastic foundations.

Relationships between composition, structure and properties of biological materials; definition and measurement of mechanical, physical, thermal and other material properties; variability of properties; application of properties to engineering analysis and design of biological and agricultural processes and systems.

Applications of stress/strain relationships and failure theory to the design of agricultural machines and structures; structural properties of engineering materials; finite element analysis and computer aided engineering design.

Theoretical and practical understanding of basic unit operations required to design processes and equipment in the agricultural, biological, environmental, and food industries, with unique constraints presented by biological and agricultural systems considered in design of all units.

Basic principles governing transport of energy and mass; application of these principles to analysis and design of processes involving biological, environmental and agricultural systems.

Theory and application of sensors and techniques in the design of systems for automatic control in biological systems and agricultural production and processing; sensor operation; signal processing; control techniques; automation and robotics.

Participation in an approved high-impact learning practice; reflection on professional outcomes from the National Society of Professional Engineers’ Engineering Body of Knowledge; documentation and self-assessment of learning experience.

Hydraulic power systems; energy and power relationships; hydraulic fluid properties; frictional loses in pipelines; hydraulic pumps, cylinders, valves and motors; servo and proportional valves; circuit design and analysis; conductors, fittings and ancillary devices; maintenance of hydraulic systems; pneumatic components and circuits; electrical controls and fluid logic; electro-hydraulic systems.

Energy/power systems through engineering and technical aspects of quantifying and designing the suitability of several types of renewable energy resources; new insights of vast resources that future engineers can harness to augment diminishing supplies of nonrenewable energy.

Theoretical and applied learning of rheology of food materials necessary for processing and preservation; topics include viscous liquids, structured materials, and hard solids; fundamental relationships between materials structure and measured properties to observed physical and performance behavior with regard to processing and mouthfeel.

Design of food process engineering systems; basic concepts of rheology and physical properties of foods; fundamentals of heat and mass transfer and process control.

Introduction to properties and engineering aspects of materials for use as components of a package and/or packaging system; principles of design and development of packages; evaluation of product-package-environment interaction mechanisms; testing methods; environmental concerns; regulations; food packaging issues.