Alums Join Department to Celebrate Banner Year for ABE

Published Nov 3, 2009

With 75 years under its belt, a national ranking in US News and World Report, and the ASABE ¼ Scale Tractor Design championship, the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering had much to celebrate at the second annual “Celebrate ABE@Illinois.”

The festivities were held September 25th and 26th on the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana campus. More than 80 alumni, faculty, students and staff came together to toast the Department for 75 years of excellence in research, scholarship and service.

The weekend began with the fall meeting of the Central Illinois Section of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). The meeting was held in room 612 of the Institute for Genomic Biology and included presentations by Andrew Fulton, ASABE Student Club President, and Tyler Zoeller, Ag Mech Student Club President. Fulton spoke about the success of the Illini Pullers, winners of the 2009 ASABE International ¼ Scale Tractor Student Design Competition. He also noted that the ASABE student club will be hosting the 2010 Midwest Regional Rally in February. The membership voted to give the ASABE Student Club $500 in support of this rally.

After the meeting, the Department hosted a box lunch for Celebrate ABE@Illinois participants. Jim Steck, ’90 AgM, ABE’s “Professor for a Day,” gave a brief presentation on his position as president of Sloan Implement, the largest privately-owned John Deere dealership in the world. He then opened it up for questions, and interest was high among all the participants.

Some of the questions that Steck addressed included choosing and training people for management positions within the company; the challenges of managing 10 contiguous dealerships in Illinois; the decision to expand the company into Wisconsin; the challenges Steck faced personally moving from a position in corporate John Deere to a position in a private dealership; and the differences in marketing nationally and internationally.

Friday afternoon, participants enjoyed campus tours of The Cave, an immersive virtual environment; The Cube, an immersive, stereo-capable visualization chamber; and the new Business Instructional Facility (BIF) with the College of Business. More than 20 emeriti, alumni, faculty, and students attended these tours.

Shan Prendergast, '91 AgM, a manager for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa said, "I thoroughly enjoyed touring the Cube and the Cave. We have three virtual reality labs in our Waterloo operations, and when I was involved in some of our future product programs, we were using those labs to try and demonstrate to customers some of our products’ new features and evaluate their viability.

"Having those types of environments at a university level is an excellent opportunity for students to get engaged with what's actually happening in industry," Prendergast continued. "If they can learn now how they're used and how to optimize them, when students come to industry they can hit the ground running."

Internal tours of the research laboratories in AESB followed the campus tours.

Friday evening, the festivities began at 5:30 with a social hour in the Lincoln Room of IHotel, where research posters were available for viewing.

At 7:00 p.m., the 75th Anniversary Banquet began in the Illinois Room. After the meal, K.C. Ting, Ph.D., '80 AgE, Department Head, introduced Interim Dean of ACES Dr. Robert Hauser. Hauser welcomed everyone and congratulated the Department on 75 years of excellence.

Dr. Roscoe Pershing, Ph.D '66 AgE, Department Head from 1985-1994, served as emcee for the evening. Pershing oversaw the introduction of all the faculty and participants attending the banquet. Interspersed between introductions, Pershing awarded a variety of prizes to the attendees. Howard Wakeland, MS ’54 AgE, was recognized as the emeritus with the most years of service, and James Curtis ’47 AgE was recognized as the alumnus who graduated longest ago.

On Saturday morning, students and alumni gathered at the ABE Farm to enjoy food, fellowship, and an exhibition tractor pull. Jordan Tate, a member of the Illini Pullers, was one of the students who attended the event.

"It was really nice to socialize with other students and faculty members in an informal setting,” said Tate. “We were pleased by the crowd that came to watch the exhibition pulls. In addition to the members, some alumni and a faculty member made a few pulls down the track."

The weekend wound down at Jupiters at the Crossing, where several alumni, faculty and staff watched the Fighting Illini take on Ohio State.

"Our department has had much to celebrate this year," Dr. Ting acknowledged, "and we enjoyed the privilege of celebrating with our students and our alumni."

News writer: Leanne Lucas

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