ACADEMICS DEGREES

Bioengineering (BioE) -- an APPLIED FIELD of engineering in biological materials and systems.

Biomedical Engineering (BME) -- an APPLIED FIELD of engineering in medicine and biomedicine, generally inter-disciplinary in nature.

Biological Engineering (BE) -- a new engineering DISCIPLINE grounded in biology, particularly mechanistic biology at the molecular and cellular levels, with novel applications to biomedicine as well as biotechnology; it also enables new approaches to fundamental discoveries in bioscience.

BE vs. BME at MIT -- The crucial distinction is that Biological Engineering (BE) is a new engineering discipline, distinguished by having biology (particularly molecular cell biology) as its foundation science, just as how Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, for example, have theirs in physics and chemistry. Biomedical Engineering (BME) and Bioengineering (BioE), on the other hand, are application fields for any engineering disciplines. This is why MIT will be offering a MAJOR in BE, but only a MINOR in BME for students majoring in other departmental disciplines.

The Biological Engineering department at MIT offers two undergraduate minor programs:

• Minor Program in Biomedical Engineering
• Minor Program in Toxicology and Environmental Health

Biological Engineering launched the new BE SB degree in the 2005-2006 Academic Year. The curriculum for the degree was developed by the BE Undergraduate Programs Committee and was approved by a unanimous vote of the MIT faculty in February, 2005 as the first new major course of study in 39 years. The curriculum for the new SB comprises nine new core subjects that define Biological Engineering as a discipline at the undergraduate level. Most of these subjects may also be taken as part of the BME Minor degree. Detailed information regarding the program is available on the MIT Biological Engineering Division website, including course description and requirements, and enrollment procedure.

Biological Engineering offers an MEng Program in Biological Engineering as well as the Leaders for Global Operations Program (an S.M. in Biological Engineering and a MBA or S.M in Management from MIT Sloan).

The Biological Engineering (BE) Division offers a Ph.D. program with two tracks: Bioengineering Track and Applied Biosciences Track.