Conference Session

Innovations in Biological/Agricultural Education-II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Meyer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

logictemperature and humidity control, human exercise machines and energy exchange,insect detection and counting with optical sensors, pH controllers, and water flowmeasurements from small to large scale. Some activities are web-based bringinglocal research projects and instrumentation to the classroom. Student teams alsodevelop semester projects starting at midterm. Those projects are presented aspapers and posters during an annual department open house. A summary ofselected student projects for the past four years and student assessments will bediscussed.Keywords: Courseware, biological systems, sensors, electronics, measurements, controls. Page 13.753.2Course

Conference Session

Innovations in Biological/Agricultural Education-II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Abhijit Nagchaudhuri, University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Madhumi Mitra, University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Lurline Marsh, University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Craig Daughtry, United States Department of Agriculture; Tracy Earle, University of Maryland Eastern Shore; Jurgen Schwarz, University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

efforts.Tracy Earle, University of Maryland Eastern Shore Tracy J. Earl received her Bachelors of Science in Fisheries and Wildlife Management with a dual in Animal Behavior from Michigan State University and then her Master of Science in Fisheries and Wildlife Resources from West Virginia University. She took classes in GIS, both during her Bachelors and Masters degrees. While at WVU, she used ESRI’s products to work on the GAP Analysis project. After graduating, she started working at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore as a Geographic Information System Specialist. She is now the GIS Program Manager in the Dept of Agriculture at UMES.Jurgen Schwarz, University of Maryland Eastern Shore Dr

Conference Session

Biological & Agricultural Technical Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kumar Mallikarjunan, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Anand Lakshmikanth, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; John Cundiff, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Andrew Fulton, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

Engineering Education (EngE) and Page 13.107.2the bioprocess wing of the Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) at Virginia Tech was launchedin September 2004. The first project was awarded in Fall of 2003 and became a planning projectfor the second funding from NSF for the DLR. This DLR project, funded in Fall 2004, focusedon reformulating the engineering curriculum for specifically bioprocess engineering program inthe Department of Biological Systems Engineering in conjunction with the freshman program inthe Department of Engineering Education and School of Education12. The formed committeeassessed a need for students improving their skills by having

Conference Session

Innovations in Biological/Agricultural Education-I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kurt Rosentrater, USDA-ARS; Jerry Visser, South Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

in this area has beengrowing, and has become fertile ground for innovative individual projects,3 courses,4 and evenentire degree programs.5 Including these topics in existing coursework has also been explored.6Although wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal sources have been the staple of most of thediscussions regarding renewable energy over the years, biofuels and biomass have recentlybecome mainstream topics as well. The opportunities that biorenewable energy and bio-basedproducts offer to engineering and technology programs has been discussed thoroughly.7, 8Concurrently, the role of biology in many traditional engineering disciplines has been increasingin popularity as well.9, 10 Although the literature is still fairly sparse, it is

Conference Session

Innovations in Biological/Agricultural Education-II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kumar Mallikarjunan, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Christan Whysong, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Jenny Lo, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

LevelAbstractThe Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) and Engineering Education departments at VirginiaTech have identified the need to enhance undergraduate student exposure to engineering ethics.It was decided the best method for improving ethics training is to have students continuouslyrevisit engineering ethics material at increasing levels of complexity through a four-year spiralthemed curriculum. This is one goal of Virginia Tech’s Department Level Reform (DLR)project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Previous work has consisted ofcompiling a library of related ethics case studies, particularly related to Bioprocess Engineering,along with different methods for implementing these case studies. An ethics exercise wasimplemented at the

Conference Session

Innovations in Biological/Agricultural Education-I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ernest Tollner, University of Georgia-Athens

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

pointsof convergence/discharge and they typically do not.SolutionSsegane (2007) was doing watershed assessment work in Africa and project requirements wereto develop an erosion sensitivity map. Although the thrust of the project was to use advancedGIS techniques, we also wanted to develop a quick, back-of-the-envelope approach usingapproaches such as GoogleEarth. He developed a methodology for making area and lengthmeasurements with good success. Elevation measurements were also made. The Google TM EarthPro coordinates were translated using three dimensional (3D) modeling software to generate vectordiagram depicting runoff direction, site contour map, and a three dimensional representation of thewatershed. The vector map was overlaid over the