International expert joins NCEA to explore future farms

USQ Research continues to attract the best and brightest from around the world to join the University to tackle national and global challenges in a variety of fields. One such example is Professor Alex Thomasson, an internationally recognised expert in agricultural sensing and automation, focusing on optics and photonics for precision agriculture. Professor Thomasson has spent the past few months with USQ’s National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) and will soon return to Texas A&M University in the USA. He has researched engineering aspects of production and processing for multiple crops… Read More →

BAEN Tailgate 2017

3rd Annual Departmental Tailgate Come join the Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering Tailgate on Saturday, September 9th, 2017. We’ll be next to the Price Hobgood Building in the big white tent.  We’ll have a large screen TV with the game on. Porta cool fans and restrooms available. Food and refreshments will be served before and during the game. Hope to see you there and BTHO Nicholls State!

BAEN students showcase global design learning projects

A culmination of two semesters of work designing and implementing engineering systems to solve community problems was showcased recently as part of the Global Design Team capstone program offered by Texas A&M University’s department of biological and agricultural engineering. The capstone class spans fall and spring semesters and provides undergraduate students with real-world engineering challenges from private and public sectors. Students in three- to five-member teams  work closely with sponsors and communities to develop solutions to the challenges posed, said Dr. Rabi Mohtar, professor in biological and agricultural… Read More →

Irrigation auditor training to be offered April 25-26 in San Antonio

An two-day Landscape Irrigation Auditing and Management short course for irrigation professionals and others will be held April 25-26 at the SAWS offices in San Antonio. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo)

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will conduct a two-day Landscape Irrigation Auditing and Management short course April 25-26 at the Customer Service Center Building of San Antonio Water System, 2800 U.S. Highway 281 N. in San Antonio. The course will be from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. April 25 and 8:15 a.m.-5 p.m. April 26. It is co-hosted by AgriLife Extension’s Texas A&M School of Irrigation and San Antonio Water System. “This course is designed for Texas licensed irrigators, technicians and inspectors to get the required continuing education units… Read More →

Dr. Zong Liu Joins the BAEN Family

Dr. Zong Liu recently joined the Biological and Agricultural Department after completing his PhD in biological systems engineering and postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, he received his bachelor’s degree in material science and engineering in Beijing, China and his master’s degree in agricultural sciences at Tennessee State University. His passion for physics and mathematics, coupled with the desire to combine engineering, crop and soil science, and agricultural economics, inspired him to pursue degrees and research experience with real-world application. Dr. Liu’s research interests stem from… Read More →

NASA Project Targets Hydraulic Property Using Satellites

Understanding the movement of water in soil is critical for many Earth Science Application (ESA) ranging from a local to global scale. However, soil properties describing these flow processes are often unknown. Furthermore, traditional ground-based measurement techniques for such soil properties are limited to a small scale only. More recently, with the deployment of new Earth observing satellites such as Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) and Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS), measuring soil water retention and hydraulic properties from space is a new unexplored area of research…. Read More →

Alumni Spotlight: Usha Buch-Turner

Usha Buch-Turner received both her BS and MS from the department after an opportunity to travel from her home in the South American island, Trinidad and Tobago, and attend college in the US.  She currently works for the electrical utility company OGE in Oklahoma City as the Director of Corporate Environmental. What degrees have you obtained from Texas A&M? I obtained a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering with an environmental focus in 1996. In 1999, I received my M.S. in Agricultural Engineering after completing my thesis in air quality… Read More →

AGSM Club’s 2017 Big Event

The Big Event is the longest running, student-led service project held every year on a Saturday in early spring. It is a day where the largest group of students come together to complete service projects for residents of Bryan and College Station to show appreciation for the community. Services include doing yard work, painting, and other helpful projects. This year, The Big Event was held on March 25 where the department’s AGSM student club participated for the first time. Led by senior and club historian, Allison Thomason, the… Read More →

Runoff reduced, water retention increased by multi-paddock grazing

Multi-paddock grazing has been shown to be an effective conservation practice on grazing lands for enhancing water conservation and protecting water quality. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Kay Ledbetter)

Adaptive multi-paddock grazing has been found to be an effective conservation practice on grazing lands for enhancing water conservation and protecting water quality, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research study at Vernon. The research results were summarized in the article “Evaluating the ranch and watershed scale impacts of using traditional and adaptive multi-paddock grazing on runoff, sediment and nutrient losses in North Texas, USA,” published recently in the Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment journal The full journal article can be found at http://bit.ly/2mCiqdl. Conducting the AgriLife Research study… Read More →

Dr. Rabi Mohtar touts global water awareness at Vatican

Rabi Mohtar in conversation with Seleshi Bekele Awulachew of the Ministry of Water in Ethiopia.

Citing the need for heightened interest in water availability globally, Dr. Rabi Mohtar, biological and agricultural engineering professor at Texas A&M University, took center stage March 24 at Vatican City as part of Watershed, a conference to spark global conversations of the importance of water and the future. Pope Francis addressed the general audience in Saint Peter’s Square highlighting the importance of water and urged the Watershed conference to action around water values. The Watershed conference followed with a welcome session and first technical session on the water… Read More →