The Threads of Biosystems Engineering

Resumen

The core concepts, or threads, of Biosystems Engineering (BSEN) are variously
understood by those within the
discipline, but have never been unequivocally defined due to
its
early
stage of development. This makes communication and teaching difficult compared to other well
established engineering subjects.
Biosystems Engineering is a field of Engineering which int
egrates engineering science and design
with applied biological, environmental and agricultural sciences. It represents an evolution of the
Agricultural Engineering discipline applied to all living organisms not including biomedical
applications.
The basic
key element for the emerging EU Biosystems Engineering program of studies is to ensure
that it offers essential minimum fundamental engine
ering knowledge and competences
.
A
core
curriculum
developed by Erasmus Thematic Networks
is
used as benchmark for Agr
icultural and
Biosystems Engineering studies in Europe.
The common basis of the core curriculum for the
discipline across the Atlantic
,
including a minimum of competences comprising the Biosystems
Engineering core competencies,
has been defined by an Atlan
tis project
, but this needs to be taken
further by defining the threads linking
courses together.
This
paper presents a structured approach to define the Threads of
BSEN
. The definition of the mid-level competences and the associated learning outcomes has
been one of the objectives of the
Atlantis programme TABE.NET. The mid-level competences and learning outcomes for each of six
specializations
of BSEN are defined while the domain-specific knowledge to be acquired for each
outcome is proposed. Once the proposed definitions are adopted, these threads will be available for
global development of the BSEN.