Excellence of faculty in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) at the U of I will again be on display at the 2021 Virtual Annual International Meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) to be held in July 2021. Vijay Singh, Al Hansen, and KC Ting will be recognized for outstanding contributions in agricultural and biological engineering.

ABE professors Vijay Singh, Richard Cooke, Paul Davidson, Girish Chowdhary, Salah Issa, PhD candidate Jamison Watson, and undergraduate students Nina Chatrath and Mak Jarvis are receiving college- and campus-level awards for their excellence and innovation in research, teaching, extension, or leadership.

A power-generating wind turbine made of discarded auto parts, a grain dryer for Cardamom seed farmers in Guatemala, and an industrial sized salad spinner for commercial farming were among the innovative products that seniors produced this spring in the ABE 469 Industry-linked Design Project course.

The Technical Systems Management (TSM) program serves approximately 200 undergraduate students. For the first time ever in Spring 2021 semester, some of the seniors had the opportunity to bring together the knowledge and skills from their first 3.5 years and apply them towards a capstone project in TSM 439 (Capstone Experience).

Dr. Laurie Leonelli joined the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) as a tenure-track assistant professor in January 2021. Dr. Leonelli has B.A. in Biological Sciences from Mount Holyoke College and Ph.D. in Plant Biology from University of California - Berkeley.