What if all agricultural waste could be bio-based? Researchers at Iowa State University’s Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering are exploring the viability of creating more bio-based supply chains. The approach could not only inform future agricultural sector decisions, but could be used right now.
In spring 2020, ISU ABE will attain a rare piece of equipment. An off-highway vehicle chassis dynomometer will allow researchers and industry partners to test the all-terrain abilities of anything from a four-wheeler to a combine.
Nathaniel Hall Major: Agricultural engineering with emphasis in power and machinery GPA: 3.81 Hometown: Brooklyn, Iowa Career goal: My goal is to design machines that improve people’s lives. Clubs/activities: Theta Chi Fraternity, ISU ITEC Robotics Club, ABE Peer Mentor, Student Innovation Center Lab Technician Favorite place on campus: I enjoy hanging out and talking with …Continue reading “Outstanding senior fall 2019 – Nathaniel Hall”
The origin of ISU ABE’s successful learning community is rooted in long-term retention efforts In the fall of 1997, Iowa State University’s Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering (ISU ABE) Department saw a 33% decline in retaining incoming students. This threw a then-new associate chair of teaching into a sticky situation. Steve Mickelson needed to find the …Continue reading “Retaining students through relationship-building”
ISU ABE Professor Matt Helmers weighs in on a pressing question: can Iowa speed up its water conservation efforts? And at what point is it too late to make a change?
Students studying industrial technology (ITec) will benefit from a brand new scholarship opportunity recently awarded on campus. ITec students taking Technology Systems Management 240: Introduction to Manufacturing Processes for Metals received the Gene Haas Foundation Manufacturing Scholarship in the amount of $15,000 on Thursday, Nov. 21 during an afternoon laboratory session. Hope Riska and Brent …Continue reading “Gene Haas Foundation Manufacturing Scholarship awarded to ISU ABE”
Richard Gates has been named director of the Egg Industry Center at Iowa State University. Gates, currently a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will start his new duties with the center on Jan. 1.
Iowa State University (ISU) broke ground on a new state-of-the-art facility this month, a facility that will help propel the University into answering a major need.
“If it takes energy and takes resources that folks don’t have to use or to burn, they’re not going to use it,” says Gretchen Mosher, a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University. “And it will just become one of those projects that the Western people come in and develop and then it sits there after they leave.”
“There’s nothing more powerful than feeling like you are part of a community.”
That’s Steven Bell’s philosophy. Bell, a senior lecturer of agricultural and biosystems engineering, wanted to close the gap between alumni and undergraduate students. So he founded the Blue Chip Network (BCN) earlier this year. The network of more than 80 professionals has grown since the group’s founding earlier in 2019, and it is a unique tool for students as they begin to understand the ins and outs of industry.
“I’m striving to have my research be very practical and beneficial for the industry, so that when other producers are reading the results of our research, they’re really not questioning, ‘Is this even similar to what my operation is going to be like for conditions?’ ” Ben Smith, a graduate student in agricultural and biosystems engineering, says.
