The online catalog includes the most recent changes to courses and degree requirements that have been approved by the Faculty Senate, including changes that are not yet effective.
Department of Biological Systems Engineering
bsyse.wsu.edu
L. J. Smith Hall 213
509-335-1578
Department Chair M. García-Pérez; Professors, B. K. Ahring, G. V. Barbosa-Cánovas, S. Chen, M. Karkee, H. Lei, J. Tang, R. Peters, S. Sablani, J. Wu, B. Yang; Associate Professors, L. Khot, Y. Lee, S. Sankaran; Assistant Professors, K. Huang, K. Rajagopalan; Research Assistant Professors - Career, H. Li, L. Yu; Affiliate Faculty, E. Beers, T. Chi, M. Flury, G. Ganjyal, J. Heyne, A. Jayakaran, H. Lin, H. Liu, J. Male, D. McCool, J. S. McEwen, J. McIntyre, P. Pfromm, M. Wolcott, V. Yadama; Adjunct Faculty, P. Bohutskyi, D. J. Brown, J. Casanova, F. Chejne, W. Elliott, D. I. Gustafson, G. Hoogenboom, F. Leal-Yepes, J. Liu, M. V. Olarte, N. Pickering, W. Qian, P. R. Robichaud, V. Thompson, M. Tucker, S. Wang, M. Wigmosta, V. Wu; Faculty Emeritus, R. Cavalieri, D. Davis, L. James, L. King, P. Ndegwa, C. O. Stöckle, Q. Zhang.
BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
Biological and Agricultural Engineering is a multidisciplinary program that provides students flexibility to acquire and apply knowledge of engineering and science in their programs of study and research projects. The Department offers Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Students apply scientific and engineering principles to conduct high-quality research and to disseminate knowledge and technologies in four areas of emphasis: a) food engineering, b) bioenergy and bioproducts engineering, c) land, air, water resources and environmental engineering, and d) agricultural automation engineering.
Applicants to the graduate program should have a B.S. or M.S. in engineering or a closely related degree, with a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) 3.0/4.0 or above. Applications must include: official transcripts for all college level work, contact information for three references, statement of intent, and resume. International applicants must include official transcripts and their English translations. Also, English proficiency test scores must be sent from the testing agency directly to Washington State University (University Code#4705).
Student Learning Outcomes
During their training in our graduate program, we expect students to grow professionally and acquire skills for successful careers. Alumni who are successful in their careers will exhibit most, if not all of these features.
- Academia
- Possess a national and international reputation for excellence in their area
- Value the significance of quality scholarly work
- Are creative and innovative
- Contribute to the knowledge base within their discipline
- Attract funding for their research
- Provide leadership to professional organizations
- Enable undergraduate and graduate engineering students to be successful in their careers
- Industry
- Effectively manage engineering research and/or development research teams
- Provide leadership in developing industry standards of practice
- Are creative and innovative
- Develop profitable products or revenue saving manufacturing procedures
- Provide vision for future direction of their companies and for the industry
- Government service
- Provide expert technical knowledge in decision making processes
- Provide leadership within their technical and professional societies
- Contribute to the development of public policies
- Provides global perspective in the use of technical knowledge
Courses
The online catalog includes the most recent changes to courses and degree requirements that have been approved by the Faculty Senate, including changes that are not yet effective. Courses showing two entries of the same number indicate that the course information is changing. The most recently approved version is shown first, followed by the older version, in gray, with its last-effective term preceding the course title. Courses shown in gray with only one entry of the course number are being discontinued. Course offerings by term can be accessed by clicking on the term links when viewing a specific campus catalog.
Biological Systems Engineering (BSYSE)
491 Advanced Topics V 1-4 May be repeated for credit; cumulative maximum 8 credits. Directed group study of selected advanced topics in biological systems engineering. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
512 Research and Teaching Methods 3 (2-3) Graduate research with an emphasis on biological systems engineering and college instruction. Typically offered Spring.
530 Machine Vision for Biological Systems 3 Image analysis techniques as applied to machine vision applications integrated into autonomous equipment used in specialty crops. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
532 Electrohydraulic Systems Control 3 Fluid power transmission, E/H control, control systems and controller design. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
541 Instrumentation and Measurements 3 (2-3) Basic engineering concepts involving instrumentation including measurement systems, sensors, data acquisition, signal processing, and analysis. Typically offered Spring.
550 (Effective through Summer 2025) Soil and Water Conservation Engineering 3 Land, water and air conservation emphasizing on soil and water engineering concepts, state of science solution techniques, and engineering design. Typically offered Fall.
551 Advanced Biological Systems Engineering Topics V 1-4 May be repeated for credit; cumulative maximum 6 credits. Directed group study of selected advanced topics in biological systems engineering. Typically offered Fall, Spring, and Summer. Cooperative: Open to UI degree-seeking students.
552 Advanced Biological Systems Engineering Topics V 1-4 May be repeated for credit. Directed group study of selected advanced topics in biological systems engineering. Typically offered Fall, Spring, and Summer. Cooperative: Open to UI degree-seeking students.
554 (Effective through Summer 2025) Aquatic System Restoration 3 Study of natural, damaged and constructed ecosystems with emphasis on water quality protection and restoration of lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands. Required preparation must include CHEM 345; MBIOS 101. (Crosslisted course offered as CE 585 and BSYSE 554.) Cooperative: Open to UI degree-seeking students.
555 (Effective through Summer 2025) Natural Treatment Systems 3 Principles and design procedures of natural systems for wastewater treatment for agricultural and non-agricultural applications. (Crosslisted course offered as CE 555, BSYSE 555.) Typically offered Fall and Spring. Cooperative: Open to UI degree-seeking students.
556 Surface Hydrologic Processes and Modeling 3 (2-3) Fundamental hydrologic processes, governing equations and solution methods, GIS techniques commonly used in hydrology, class project on modeling surface hydrology. Typically offered Fall.
557 (Effective through Summer 2025) Nutrient Cycling and Transport 3 Cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus at global and watershed scales; modeling of transportation and transport in agricultural systems Typically offered Fall.
558 Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport 4 (3-3) Physics of flow and contaminant transport in saturated porous media including governing equations, well hydraulics and computer modeling. Typically offered Fall.
560 Aquatic Chemistry 3 Chemical principles as applied to natural environmental system, water supply and pollution and control engineering. (Crosslisted course offered as CE 583, BSYSE 560.) Typically offered Fall and Spring. Cooperative: Open to UI degree-seeking students.
564 (Effective through Summer 2025) Agricultural Waste and Air Quality Management 3 Detailed analyses of agricultural wastes and their potential adverse impacts on the environment; current management systems; reuse and recycle. Typically offered Spring.
581 (Effective through Summer 2025) Advanced Physical Properties of Foods 3 Analysis, modeling, and experimental procedures to measure food physical properties for use in food processing system design. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
582 Food Process Engineering I 3 Design of food processing systems; design and simulation of sterilization and pasteurization processes in foods. Typically offered Fall and Spring. Cooperative: Open to UI degree-seeking students.
583 Food Process Engineering II 3 Design of food separation unit operations including concentration, dehydration, and membrane processes. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
584 Thermal and Nonthermal Processing of Foods 3 Food preservation methods based on application of thermal and nonthermal processes. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
585 Food Packaging 3 Properties of packaging materials, manufacturing of packages, shelf-life testing and food packaging interaction. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
593 Renewable Energy Technologies 3 Thermochemical biorefinery technologies for biofuels and bioproducts; facility operations, analysis, and design of integrated processes for biofuel and bioproduct production Typically offered Fall.
594 (Effective through Summer 2025) Design and Analysis of Biomass Conversion Processes and Systems 3 Analysis of bioprocessing and biotreatment processes including energenetics, stoichiometry, species competition, process infiltration, product separation and optimization. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
595 (Effective through Summer 2025) Biosystems Engineering for Fuel and Chemicals 3 Design and optimization of biological systems for industrial functions, modeling and simulation of cell processes, bioreactors and system integration. Typically offered Fall and Spring.
596 Biomass Thermo-Chemical Conversion 3 Biomass chemistry, analytical thermo-chemistry, torrefaction, pyrolysis, gasification and combustion; characterization and uses of thermochemical products. Typically offered Fall and Spring. Cooperative: Open to UI degree-seeking students.
597 Biomass Biological Process Engineering 3 Technical issues in the biological process engineering field, commercial application and evaluation of new technologies in resource, environment and economic contexts. Typically offered Spring.
598 Graduate Seminar 1 May be repeated for credit. Required of all graduate students in biological systems engineering. Typically offered Fall and Spring. S, F grading.
600 Special Projects or Independent Study V 1-18 May be repeated for credit. Independent study, special projects, and/or internships. Students must have graduate degree-seeking status and should check with their major advisor before enrolling in 600 credit, which cannot be used toward the core graded credits required for a graduate degree. S, F grading.
700 Master's Research, Thesis, and/or Examination V 1-18 May be repeated for credit. Independent research and advanced study for students working on their master's research, thesis and/or final examination. Students must have graduate degree-seeking status and should check with their major advisor/committee chair before enrolling for 700 credit. Typically offered Fall, Spring, and Summer. S, U grading.
702 Master's Special Problems, Directed Study and/or Examination V 1-18 May be repeated for credit. Independent research in special problems, directed study, and/or examination credit for students in a non-thesis master's degree program. Students must have graduate degree-seeking status and should check with their major advisor/committee chair before enrolling for 702 credit. Typically offered Fall, Spring, and Summer. S, U grading.
800 Doctoral Research, Dissertation, and/or Examination V 1-18 May be repeated for credit. Course Prerequisite: Admitted to the Biological and Agricultural Engineering or Engineering Science PhD program. Independent research and advanced study for students working on their doctoral research, dissertation and/or final examination. Students must have graduate degree-seeking status and should check with their major advisor/committee chair before enrolling for 800 credit. Typically offered Fall, Spring, and Summer. S, U grading.
Food Manufacturing Technology (FMT)
501 Conventional Food Processing Technologies 3 Common/ traditional, and novel unit operations used in the food industry to effectively and economically enhance product safety, shelf-life, variety, and nutrition.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production (SAFP)
501 Biomass Conversion Technologies Relevant to SAF Production 3 Fundamental concepts of the chemistry and physicochemical properties of biomass, as well as approaches to existing biomass conversion technologies.
502 Sustainable Aviation Fuel Technologies 3 Review of technologies and approaches for producing sustainable aviation fuels (SAF); development of skills and knowledge for selecting and evaluating sustainable aviation fuels technologies.
503 Renewable Electricity and Hydrogen 3 Fundamental principles of the current and emerging development of converting renewables to electricity technologies, production, and uses.
504 SAF Life Cycle Assessment 3 With an emphasis on the viability and environmental effects of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), analysis of the fundamental ideas of life cycle assessment (LCA) and applied cases for the sustainable aviation fuel industry.
505 SAF: TEA, Financing, and Investment 3 Technoeconomic analysis (TEA) principles and their application in the context of the SAF industry.
506 SAF Law, Policies, and Regulations 3 United Nations sustainable development goals, authority differences for international and domestic aviation, role of the Carbon Offsetting Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) and regional or country-level policies incentivizing the use, production, or emission reductions of SAF.
507 Feedstock Assessment 3 Feedstocks that can be utilized in the production of SAF; aspects of biomass inventories, global biomass availability, energy crops, and the fundamentals and applications of crop modeling.
508 SAF System Dynamics 3 Principles and applications of system dynamics, focusing on SAF logistics systems; use of scientific method to build stock and flow models, manage parameters of interest, and analyze impacts of policies.
509 SAF Supply Chain Analysis and Optimization 3 Analysis of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) supply chains, emphasizing the optimization of logistics, transportation economics, and biofuel supply chains.
510 SAF Fuel Analysis Certification and Standardization 3 Fundamental principles of fuel science, detailed methods for fuel analysis and quantification, and the processes involved in certifying and standardizing SAF to meet industry requirements.
511 SAF Combustion and Emissions 3 Fundamental principles of combustion, specific characteristics of SAF combustion in gas turbines, and the environmental impact of emissions.
590 Capstone Project 3 Study of biomass availability and infrastructure in a region, including considerations policies, production pathways, and specific analytic tools.