Using The Analogical Systems Approach To Teaching Biological Engineering

What is it that distinguishes biological engineering from other branches of engineering? When asking this question about any engineering field, a number of types of responses can be returned. Some engineering fields are distinguished by particular applications, such as agriculture or mining. Such fields tend not to have a distinguishing knowledge base. Other engineering fields are based on particular sciences, such as mechanics or electricity. These fields have usually developed consistent sets of technological methods appropriate to their fields, for example applied mathematics in electrical engineering and unit operations in chemical engineering. Such methods allow the study of the subject matter in rather generic form to give the ability to apply the imparted engineering knowledge to applications not completely known beforehand.