Biological engineering (a. k. a. biosystems engineering, bioengineering) is any type of engineering--for example, mechanical engineering--applied to living things.
Biological engineering (also biosystems engineering and bioengineering) is a broad-based engineering discipline that deals with bio-molecular and molecular processes, product design, sustainability and analysis of biological systems.
Bioengineering is the use of engineering principles of analysis and design to solve problems in medicine and biology.
The Department of Bioengineering at Penn was formally approved by the University in 1973, although academic and research programs in bioengineering date back to the 1920's.
In 1996 the Institute for Medicine and Engineering was created which substantially enhanced the bioengineering activities across the Penn campus.