Agricultural and Biological Engineering offers students the opportunity to gain expertise in areas of engineering for biological/agricultural systems corresponding to their professional interests. Graduate students select research projects (and supporting course work) from a wide range of interest areas that match faculty research expertise. Research projects are available in physical properties of biological materials, plant and animal production systems, food engineering, wood engineering, agricultural structures, agricultural safety, food safety, bulk solids handling and storage, agricultural systems engineering, agricultural by-product utilization, forage processing and handling systems, electronics instrumentation, online computer control systems, erosion and sedimentation control, waste management, water quality, and natural resources management and conservation.

Excellent facilities, including equipment and instrumentation, are available for research in the designated areas. Among the special facilities are field plot areas; a full-scale sedimentation basin test facility; hydraulic flumes; sedigraph; gas and ion chromatography units; atomic absorption unit; rainfall simulators; food properties lab; food equipment and processing lab; microbiological engineering lab; computer vision systems; hydraulic and pneumatic test stands; fabrication shop; electronics instrumentation; microcomputer laboratory; controlled environment chambers; wood structures lab; and wood mechanics lab. Collaborative arrangements allow access to a large variety of other resources: Penn State Institutes of the Environment; Particulate Materials Center; Housing Research Center; Center for Food Manufacturing; USDA Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Lab; a mushroom research and demonstration facility and a 1,500-acre agricultural research center for cooperative work with agronomic and horticultural production systems as well as animal production systems.