Agricultural engineers embrace biology
Contact Information:Dr. Lalit Verma, Dept. of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
479-575-3610 lverma@uark.edu
By Howell Medders, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
479-575-5647 hmedders@uark.edu
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One of the top 20 advances in the industrial revolution in the first half of the 20th century — the mechanization of agriculture — involved agricultural engineers, including those in the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Arkansas.
The discipline now is focused on much smaller machines, some of them the size of a cell or molecule, in addition to the large mechanical systems involved in producing and processing crops and food products, says Dr. Lalit Verma, head of the UA department that changed its name in 1988 to Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
Verma was one of five members of a task force that proposed a recent change in the name of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
The change reflects a movement on university campuses to change departmental names and the name of the major, which became biological engineering in 2001 at the U of A. Undergraduate student numbers at the U of A have increased from about 20 before the name and focus of the major were changed to about 100 now, Verma says.
The department is in both the College of Engineering and Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. Most faculty members also have research or extension appointments in the U of A System’s statewide Division of Agriculture.
“We are the only discipline that integrates engineering with living systems,” Verma says.
“The discipline has grown from agricultural production technology, which is still important, to include food processing and storage, the environment, health and nutrition,” Verma says. “We have always worked with biological systems, which is what agriculture is, but we have expanded into areas such as health and nutrition and ecological sustainability.
“Major advances in the life sciences and biotechnology have provided new ways to combine biological sciences and engineering in areas such as nanotechnology.”
A master of science degree curriculum in biomedical engineering is the department’s newest program. Drs. Mahendra Kavdia and Kaiming Ye are the first two faculty members. “We have a lot of pre-med students in this program,” Verma says.
Research by Kavdia and Ye includes bio-nanotechnology projects to develop models and microsensors for medical applications. Drs. Jin-Woo Kim and Yanbin Li also work in the bio-nanotechnology area.
Kavdia’s research includes developing new ways to explore underlying mechanisms of disease. A project funded by the American Heart Association is to develop a better method to measure the effects of nitric oxide in the blood on heart disease and other health problems.
Ye is developing a microsensor system that can be implanted under the skin to detect and signal low glucose levels. This would allow diabetics to manage blood glucose levels more effectively and with no pinpricks. The research is supported by a grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Other faculty members specialize in three other academic, research and extension programs.
Bioresource engineering includes agricultural production technology and by-product utilization in agriculture and food processing.
Ecological engineering focuses on sustainable solutions to environmental problems.
Food and bioprocess engineering involves designing equipment and processes — including biological processes — to enhance the quality and safety of food products.
Verma says the curriculum includes courses in a variety of engineering disciplines and classes in biological and agricultural sciences. Students typically choose one of the four specialty areas for advanced level courses.