Role Model Alumnus

Published Jun 17, 2008

Douglas Bosworth (Agricultural Engineering, M.S. ‘64) receives first ever Distinguished Alumni Award

2008 Distinguished Alumni Doug Bosworth had a productive career as an engineer for Deere and Company, culminating as the manager for business opportunities at the John Deere Harvester Works. Throughout those years he was an active member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and served as ASABE president from 1992-1993.

Over the course of his career, Doug has been actively involved in shaping engineering curricula as well. He was active in the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) from 1977 to 2003, first as a program evaluator and later as a commission member and an accreditation team leader. Doug performed nearly 30 campus visits during this period.

After Doug retired from Deere in 1995, he and his wife, Pat, moved back to the Champaign-Urbana community and immediately began to develop close ties to the Department. He is one of the key contacts to the industry for our Department. He reviews student resumes and provides training for job interviews. As an adjunct professor, he taught the senior capstone engineering design course from 1996 to 2004. The class became a model for other departments and colleges of how to utilize the product development team process used in industry to teach design. Under his tutelage, students tackled real-world problems proposed by industry partners and presented their eventual products and solutions to the industry partner in the same manner as an internal design team would. Particularly impressive is the fact that student designs and solutions are adopted by the industry partners with about the same frequency as solutiuons of their industry counterparts. Doug remains active in the Department and is serving on the newly formed ABE Futures Committee to help develop closer departmental ties with our alumni.

Doug has served as the perfect role model as an alumnus of ABE. The Department celebrates his continued fellowship by recognizing him as the first ever recipient of the Agricultural and Biological Engineeering Department Distinguished Alumni Award.

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