My name is Dana Choi. I'm an assistant professor in agricultural and biological
engineering at Penn State's College of Engineering. Biological engineering
combines the traditional engineering disciplines with biological, agricultural,
and the environmental sciences to sustain and protect the fundamentals of life,
food, water, and energy. Biological engineering students study the
development of machines for biological processing in agriculture, post-harvest
handling and processing, natural resource management and utilization, biological
processes, food engineering, and structures and their environmental
modifications, before choosing the specialized area they wish to pursue.
Biological engineers are employed throughout the biological, agricultural,
and environmental industries in both private sectors and government agencies.
Penn State biological engineering alumni are designing, developing, and researching
solutions that create sustainable resources for our world's growing
population. They work to improve biological processes, machinery
development, natural resources management, material handling, biological product
development, and structural systems for animals, plants and crop storage in
order to meet our populations immediate and growing demand. Penn State's Department
of Agriculture and biological engineering is focused on the
sustainability of our Earth's population. The faculty and students are not only
working to improve upon already existing processes but are also working on the
research and development of new technology in order to supply the earth
with life's essentials: food, water, fiber, and energy. Biological engineers provide
innovative solutions to improve food production and develop new biologically
based products by reducing the impacts on our water and environment. Biological
engineering actually is a really multidisciplinary area so it has to be
really creative because we deal with a lot of variations
in nature. What fascinates me is we have to deal with those exceptions and
variations in nature so we need to think out of the box. There are a lot of
unique things about biological engineering at Penn State. What I love the most our
major is that our major integrates the engineering sciences with biology and
agriculture sciences which creates a holistic approach to problem solving.
I love working with my hands and I can be out in the field
planting grasses. I can be in a stream doing a survey and then I can be in a
lab fermenting material to make biogas. It's so cool. I've always had an interest
in the life sciences and have always had a strong passion for foods so the
food processing element and the variety of topics really made me realize that
biological engineering was right for me. I think biological engineering is really
unique because of the diversity of the different options within it. You have the
food and bio processing, the natural resources option, and also the ag option
so you kind of all start out together but once you get off into your different
sections it is very different. So it's kind of cool that it's all incorporated
into one major. The biological engineering curriculum has a lot of
hands-on classes whether it's a class on electronics and control systems or
fermentation or heat and mass transfer, you're going to get a hands-on lab in
all of those classes. You really get to make an impact on the immediate world
around you. Farming is everywhere. Wastewater and stormwater treatment is
everywhere and it's something that if you pursue it and work on it you can see
the end effects pretty directly around you. I chose biological engineering
specifically because it is more focused in soil and water engineering and soil
and water conservation. Right now there's a lot of cool stuff happening with
bioenergy and we're learning how to biomimic nature, biomimic the cow, produce
renewable natural gas from waste sources and I think this is about to boom in the
next five, ten, twenty years. So watch out. I get to design systems that have never
been designed before and may not have been thought of
before and then I can help to bring new technologies into existence. In my career
I really hope to reach people in terms of safety. By doing that I'm hoping we
can stop some preventable injuries and make sure people come home from work
safe every day. So we're not just focusing on theory and modeling
simulation. We actually make things working in the field so if you are very
interested in making something practical in technology and also research
this is a really good department to study in.