URBANA, Ill. - Two University of Illinois engineering students have designed a miniature lunar greenhouse which they hope will enable humans to grow crops in lunar soil. They will present their design at the Lab2Moon Challenge in Bangalore, India in March. If they win the competition? Next stop – the moon.

Alex Darragh, a freshman in agricultural and biological engineering, and Matt Steinlauf, a freshman in mechanical engineering, won’t be traveling to the moon themselves, but their galactic greenhouse might. 

A robot under development at the University of Illinois automates the labor-intensive process of crop phenotyping, enabling scientists to scan crops and match genetic data with the highest-yielding plants. Agricultural and biological engineering professor Girish Chowdhary, right, is working on the $3.1 million project, along with postdoctoral researcher Erkan Kayacan. Read more at the Illinois News Bureau

The College of ACES recently celebrated 10 years of its unique faculty training program, the Academy for Global Engagement (Global Academy). At this showcase event, Academy alums and other ACES faculty and staff were joined by colleagues from across the campus to reflect on the impacts directly attributable to this program.   

The attendees, warmly welcomed by Dean Kidwell, learned more about the Academy, listened to testimonials from previous participants, and met the new cohort of scholars.