No Preq for Bioengineering

[nerdvana]

In GURPS 3e, Biochemistry defaulted off of Chemistry and required it as well. Biology now contains it as a specialty, that's cool. Bioengineering has no prereq but defaults off Biology. To me it is not clear how you could be a bioengineer without Biology though. Has anyone else considered house ruling this prereq?

[Kromm]

Why would you need it? I know people who went right into it from undergrad physics. As far as I can tell, "scientific mind" and "can use lab equipment" are the main prerequisites. Since those are prerequisites for Chemistry and Biology, too, I'm not sure I'd insert either as an additional prerequisite layer.

[nerdvana]

Good points, Kromm, thanks.

[Erik_Nielsen]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Why would you need it? I know people who went right into it from undergrad physics. As far as I can tell, "scientific mind" and "can use lab equipment" are the main prerequisites. Since those are prerequisites for Chemistry and Biology, too, I'm not sure I'd insert either as an additional prerequisite layer.

Is this one of those cases of the more specialized skill including some knowledge of both component parts but not an encyclopedic knowledge of either?

If so, could there not also be examples of people who have waived the Mathematics (Applied) prereqs for Engineering? After all, how many Engineers use Calculus on a daily basis? (And don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Calculus enough that I have the "enjoys Calculus" t-shirt.)

[GoodGame]

I'm not Kromm (and don't play one on tv either, but):

Do a college search and look up some info on Bioengineering majors. My own googling says the answer to your first question is "Yes". As a Venn diagram, I'd say that Bioengineering is mostly a subset of Biology, but not quite completely contained by Biology, and is self-consistent enough that it doesn't hinge on Biology. For instance studying how species evolve, or the structure of the heart in molecular detail is nice to know, but not necessarily pre-reqs for every Bioengineering projects. There's tons of overlap though, that I'd consider giving bonuses for the one skill when using the other, at least for a research phase of any project.

I have trouble imagining pure Engineering without math though. Excepting possibly some biology, and 'softer' sciences, I'd think all sciences need math as a pre-req.

Originally Posted by Erik_Nielsen

Is this one of those cases of the more specialized skill including some knowledge of both component parts but not an encyclopedic knowledge of either?

If so, could there not also be examples of people who have waived the Mathematics (Applied) prereqs for Engineering? After all, how many Engineers use Calculus on a daily basis? (And don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Calculus enough that I have the "enjoys Calculus" t-shirt.)