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A&T Agricultural Engineering Program on Cutting Edge t/H/* ? "7 A/IA WE9USI ( Special |? THt CHUOWICtg GREENSBORO? The 73 year-old program now known at Agricultural and Bio- System* Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University offers stu dents the best of the old and the new. While it benefits from its years of experience conducting research and turning out gradu ates prepared for work serving agriculture ? the world's largest and most important industry ? it also has evolved to remain on the cutting edge of technology. The program, established in the School of Agriculture in 1925 and called Agricultural Mecha nization, has undergone several alterations and name changes over the years. Today, it is a nationally accredited joint ven ture between the School of Agri culture and the College of Engineering. Thanks to that link, which allows for sharing of faculty and other resources, the program now encompasses such cutting-edge fields as artificial intelligence, bioprocess engineering, comput er-aided design, renewable energy generation, water resources engi neering, water quality modeling, geographic information systems and precision agriculture. "What we've tried to do is change to meet the needs of soci ety and to make our students more marketable," says Dr. God frey Gayle, chairman ofA&T's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, which houses the pro gram. The program will graduate 6 students next month. Three will -yaduatc magna cum laude and tRree will graduate summa cum #**' i J f Graduates are currently work ing for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as for private companies in environ mentally-related fields. "Most of our students move on to graduate school," Gayle says. "All of the students graduating this year have offers to move on to the graduate school of their choice." Past AAT graduates have gone on to universities with prestigious agricultural engineering pro grams including Penn State, Illi nois, Iowa, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and Purdue. "Some of these schools are actively recruiting graduates from the program," Gayle says. Gayle, a native of Jamaica, earned his own bachelor of sci ence degree in agricultural engi neering from A&T before going on to complete his master's and doctorate at North Carolina State University. In 1982, he became the first African Ameri can to receive that school's Ph.D. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering and only the fifth African American in the nation to earn the degree. Currently, he is one of only 12 to hold that degree. Since minorities are so severe ly underreprescnted in agricultur al engineering, Gayle has made it a mission to recruit minorities and women into the field. "Increasing enrollment is priority one at this, time," he said, adding that he is not confining his recruitment efforts to tradi tional students. "The new interest that we're seeing now is from non-traditional students who want to be retrained." He says many top-performing students have been attracted to the program because of its union with the College of Engineering, which was established in 1991 under the leadership of Dr. Harold Martin, who was dean of the College of Engineering at the time and now is Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs. In 1991, the program became the first of its kind at an histori cally black college pr university to be accredited by the Accredit ing Board for Engineering and Technology. This makes the grad uates eligible for professional engineering licensure and to be hired as engineers. Graduates of the program are making AAT proud all around the country, and spreading the program's reputa tion. Gayle says he has often got ten positive feedback on the per formance of graduates. TaShara Bailey, a recent graduate who is an environmental officer with the public works department in Grand Rapids, Mich., is one example. "They say that they're extremely satisfied with her work when they compare her to gradu ates of other schools," Gayle said, who added "Bailey said she turned down a job offer of more than $48,000 a year in favor of going to graduate school in the fall. "We really try to push them hard because we figure they're going to need this to do well," he said, noting that it is paying off. "We have quite a few of them out there making a positive impact." , In addition to being proud of its students, Gayle also is proud of the program's research. Among current research pro jects, Dr. Manuel Reyes is leading a project, funded by a $300,000 USDA grant, that is evaluating the performance of erosion and water quality models. And Dr. Ghasem Shahbazi is researching new sources of renewable energy ? study for which he has received grants totaling several hundred thousand dollars. It is an important field that addresses some of the world's most pressing challenges and supplies some of its basic needs: food and fiber. Gayle said "Agriculture is regard ed as a major source of pollution and is also the largest employer of labor in the world. We take food, fiber and our natural resources for granted. The agricultural and bio-systems engineers' challenge is to produce these products effi ciently and economically. We all need to eat and we need to con serve our natural resources for generations to Come. Engineers in this discipline are trained to help society meet these needs." Or. Oodfrmy Oayt? workt wMi BtodonH In AAT's hydrology and wator moumi lob. I' SPRING TRAINING , STARTS AT DILLARD'S^ # ? B H H BHB |H V B B IViS BVB|v B ViW ?? |H fl^B ^B%^^B iv A V ?^^B >Vi I I^H ^B ? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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April 23, 1998, edition 1
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