Master in Environmental Bioengineering

MA-IRBEorganized by the faculty of Sciences during academic year 2017-2018

Job opportunities and intended professions

This training leads to a broad range of application domains. Agronomy, environment, territorial planning, biotechnologies,... are all sectors in which a bioengineers will be able to flourish. He might particularly work in industry, administrations (national and internationals), and consultancy but also in teaching and research.

The studies leading to the academic degree of Master in Bioengineering are compliant to the law regarding the access to the profession and confers the professional title of bioengineer.

A recent survey among some of the recently graduates showed that they were for most of them working in research and industry. Yet, other sectors are also represented (teaching, development cooperation, public service,...).

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Programme objectives

The training meets the objectives set by the society, evolving and lead by the ever widening range of bioengineering applications. The studies take their roots in the domains of environment management, agro-ecosystems and all the industrial activities based on living beings.

The deeply multidisciplinary training helps the student to develop his creativity and his versatility in order to be functional in the various domain of engineering and biological sciences.

This master centered on environmental engineering aims at applying the engineering science to improve the quality of the environment (modelling the transport of contaminants, optimize water treatment, analyze the environmental impacts of industrial processes).

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Structure of curriculum and disciplines taught

Engineering and environmental sciences represent more than 90% of the first year of the master. This fraction is reduced to 60% in the second year to give way to other axes added to complete the overall technical training: socio-economic, legal and governance aspects are developed with water and hydrosystems as highlighted theme.

The analysis of ecosystems comes within the broader context of sustainable management and aims at understanding the natural and semi-natural ecosystems functioning under the pressure of global changes.

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Benefits of the ULB training

The studies leading to the academic degree of Master in Bioengineering ensure the student of a versatility based on the acquisition of general scientific bases associated with the learning of engineering technics. This versatility favor the development of an integration and interaction capability for a global approach of the problems and coming from a care of the sustainability of the realized solutions.

The Masters in bioengineering deliver, on top of this general versatile training, a more specific training that are translated in 3 major orientations, corresponding to the main domains of bioengineers activity, namely, environment science and technology, agronomic science and chemical and bio industries.

Bioengineers student at ULB benefits from a unique interfaculty environment, in a multidisciplinary university in the capital of Europe, close to the European Institutions. The combination of the teachings from the Science Faculty and from the Brussels Polytechnic School is a major asset to strengthen the multidisciplinarity of the training.

The teaching in this Master are based on cutting edge research in the different laboratories of the EIB and some laboratories of the Science Faculty and of the Brussels Polytechnic School. Particular attention is paid to the water science domain thanks to the researchers and teachers in domains such as ecology of aquatic systems, marine biology, wastewater treatment, water potabilization, chemical oceanography, applied microbiology, glaciology, ...

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Teaching methods

The program, divided in mandatory courses, elective courses and internship, offers varied teaching methods: from lecture to exercise and practical in laboratories or personal work in the framework of projects.

During the bloc 1 of the Master, half the teaching is allocated to exercises, practical, visits, personal work while the other half is dedicated to lectures.

During the bloc 2 of the Master, emphasis is put on the master thesis (25 ECTS), which is a long duration thorough research work and on a 12 weeks internship (15 ECTS). These two works represent together 66% of the final year.

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International/Openness

EIB students have the opportunity to stay one or two semesters in an foreign university. Most of the time, this stay takes place during the first bloc of the Master. To enable those stays, EIB has signed exchanges agreement with about twenty bioengineering departments of EU universities (Erasmus program)

Available destinations through these agreements are : Austria France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. Moreover, bilateral exchange agreements have been signed by the ULB with non-EU universities, allowing students to go study outside of Europe for a semester or a complete academic year.

The internship organized by the Development Cooperation Committee of the Polytechnic School (Codepo) offers the opportunity to some of EIB students to go for one month in a developing country. This internship is proposed in the list of elective course of the Master.

On top of that, various laboratories propose master thesis on subjects that require a one to three month stay abroad, most of the time in developing countries.

EIB has developed a national and international network of academic and industrial partnership that is materialized by students exchanges (Erasmus and internship), lecture given by industrial specialists, on site visits and research collaborations.

For the master in environment sciences and technology, this is translated, among other things, in practical on industrial pilot plants, lectures from industrial executives from Vivaqua and Total, visits of wastewater treatment plants and river environmental tracing stations.

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Progression per curriculum unit

The concept of a year of studies gives way to a system of accumulation of credits based on the student's individual programme. The cycle programme is offered in units of 60 credits. The units of 60 credits are proposed as an "ideal" course of study for students enrolled in this programme.

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