Biological Systems Engineering Major

Get involved. Find your people.

The UW–Madison student chapter of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) is for any student interested in engineering for agriculture, food, and biological systems. You can meet professionals, tour companies, explore career paths, and participate in national design competitions.

Explore a few of the other biological systems engineering-related student organizations at UW–Madison:

Study abroad and gain a global perspective

Gain cross-cultural skills, international understanding, and flexible independence with a study abroad program. Learn about food and bioprocess engineering in Denmark, machinery systems in Germany, environmental engineering in Iceland, and so much more.

You can also choose from one of UW–Madison’s many semester, summer, and short-term study abroad programs and map your study abroad experience as a biological systems engineering major.

Join a competitive design team

Build a small-scale tractor and put it to the test against other national and international university teams with the Quarter-Scale Tractor Team, or brainstorm a fully autonomous robot solution to a common agricultural process in the Robotics Student Design Competition. These two competitive teams are hosted by the Department of Biological Systems Engineering.

Other engineering design competitions are found on campus, including:

Customize your path

You’ll take core engineering courses and then choose which focus area you’d like to specialize in.

• Food and bioprocess engineering: where you’ll learn to develop and manage systems that process and distribute food and other biologically based materials.
• Machinery systems engineering: you’ll be trained to design machines for production agriculture and construction.
• Natural resources and environmental engineering: you’ll work with natural resources, including water, soil, plants, and air to create solutions for a better environment. 
• General program: for students who are interested in a combination of the specialization areas. Some examples include aquaculture engineering, forest engineering, and biomaterials engineering.

Step outside the classroom and into the lab

Explore new possibilities in agriculture and production in one of the many biological systems engineering labs on campus.

Gain hands-on experience while learning about topics such as: