The Ag eDispatch

Media energized

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:23:25 -0500

The Carolina Peacemaker sent a reporter to Small Farms Field Day at the University Farm on Aug. 7, and he came away from the program with some interesting facts and figures on the growing economic incentives for producing as well as using biodiesel on small farms in North Carolina, compliments of Dr. Jimo Ibrahim of The Cooperative Extension Program at A&T and Dr. Ghasem Shahbazi of the Agricultural Research Program. The Peacemaker reporter zoned in on Ibrahim’s estimate that small biodiesel units such as the one at the University Farm (small but still capable of producing as much as 40 gallons of fuel a day recycling cooking oil from restaurant fryers) cost about $2,000. The Peacemaker quotes Shahbazi as saying, “The advantage with biodiesel production is that there is no refinery. People can produce their need and demand in their area using local resources.”

KY Poverty Research Center has funding for junior faculty research

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:20:51 -0500

The University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research is looking for proposals from junior faculty with full-time academic appointments who are untenured and have received their doctorates in the past seven years. The Center is looking for social science research regarding low-income populations — including child and family well being, and the economic status of disadvantaged and underrepresented populations. Preference will be given to proposals that address poverty in the South.

The Center is planning to fund three proposals of up to $7,500 each. The application deadline is 5 p.m. on Friday, July 11.

Energy consumption insights for a high-energy audience

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:00:29 -0500

Dr. Ghasem Shahbazi, director of the Biological Engineering Program, has extended the application deadline to May 31 for a summer program that offers high school students a week of exposure to research into renewable energy production and flexible fuel vehicle design. Students accepted for either of the week-long programs (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., June 23 - 27, or July 21 to 25) will also get an overview of how various types of energy are generated, and they will also get a look at the impacts energy conservation and related environmental issues have on their day-to-day lives. Underwriting from the Ford Foundation makes it possible for students accepted to attend without tuition or other fees. High school students who have completed grades 9-11 and at least one algebra course by the end of spring semester are eligible.

Shahbazi’s research into alternatives to fossil fuels has been featured recently in both the Triad Business Journal and on digtriad.com. The Business Journal’s look into Shahbazi’s research, published March 21, lauds the SAES bioenvironmental engineer as “one of the top biofuel experts in the state,” and “among the leading researchers in the state investigating alternatives.” An article posted on digtriad.com on April 25 begins “North Carolina A&T researcher says he's found a way to produce ethanol without expensive corn,” and goes on to say “Shahabazi believes duckweed will one day replace gasoline and drastically cut the cost of fuel.”

Gayle force

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:50:04 -0500

Dr. Godfrey Gayle of the Biological Engineering Program has an outstanding opportunity for 18 farmers. Gayle is coordinating a two-day farm improvement workshopthat will be offered June 3 and 4—covering all the basics from soil quality and farm business plans to tillage practices and animal waste management—and there will be no registration fees for the 18 farmers selected. Funds are also available to reimburse participants for travel costs, and for overnight lodging for participants whose commute to Greensboro is more than 30 miles.

Two days of comprehensive grow-how

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:41:23 -0500

The Biological Engineering Program has an outstanding opportunity for 18 farmers. A two-day farm improvement workshop will be offered June 3 and 4—covering all the basics from soil quality and farm business plans to tillage practices and animal waste management—and there will be no registration fees for the 18 farmers selected. Funds are also available to reimburse participants for travel costs, and for overnight lodging for participants whose commute to Greensboro is more than 30 miles.

Energizing high school students

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:33:55 -0500

The Biological Engineering Program has extended the application deadline to May 31 for a summer program that will be providing high school students exposure to research into such cutting-edge energy issues as renewable energy production and flexible fuel vehicle design. Students accepted for one of the week-long programs (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., June 23 - 27, or July 21 to 25) will also get an overview of how various types of energy are generated, and a survey of the impact energy conservation and related environmental issues have on their day-to-day lives. Underwriting from the Ford Foundation makes it possible for students accepted to attend without tuition or other fees. High school students who have completed grades 9 through 11 by the end of spring semester are eligible, provided they have completed at least one algebra course.

Applications now available for summer program for high school students

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:24:59 -0500

The Biological Engineering Program is now accepting applications for a summer program that will be providing high school students exposure to research into such cutting edge energy issues as renewable energy production and flexible fuel vehicle design. Students accepted for one of the week-long programs (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., June 23 - 27, or July 21 to 25) will also get an overview of how various types of energy are generated, and a survey of the impact energy conservation and related environmental issues have on their day-to-day lives. Underwriting from the Ford Foundation makes it possible for students accepted to attend without tuition or other fees. High school students who have completed grades 9 through 11 by the end of spring semester are eligible, provided they have completed at least one algebra course.

Asian opportunities

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:27:33 -0500

There’s going to be a highly informative triple-header for SAES faculty, staff and students at the Memorial Student Union building on Thursday, March 29, beginning at 1 p.m. The program will start with presentations by high-ranking officials from four Southeast Asian universities with which the SAES has recently signed memorandums of understanding. Study abroad opportunities, and the potential for faculty exchanges and joint research will be discussed. Following the overviews of the four new SAES international partners (the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Nong Lam University in Vietnam, Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia and Chiang Mai University in Thailand), senior biological engineering students will present their design for a drip irrigation system for a vegetable farm in the Philippines. The program’s grand finale will be a demonstration of a solar-powered water pump that can pump water at a rate of 25 gallons per minute. The international opportunities overviews and the irrigation presentation will be in Stallings Ballroom in the Memorial Student Union, and the pump demonstration will be just outside the building.

The officials from the SAES’s new Southeast Asian partners will be coming to Greensboro following two days in Washington for meetings at USDA and other agencies. Dr. Alton Thompson, the SAES dean, and Drs. Manuel Reyes, G. B. Reddy and Godfrey Gayle of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design will be their escorts.

Steering engineering

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 16:40:53 -0500

Dr. Godfrey Gayle has been elected to the Engineering & Technology Accreditation Committee of the American Association of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). The committee’s responsibilities include establishing criteria for biological engineering programs, and input into the accreditation process. It also conducts training programs on accreditation procedures for program evaluators, and it works closely with the Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology, the nonprofit that is the accrediting body for more than 2,700 programs in post-secondary degree programs in applied sciences, engineering, technology and computing.

At the rich ASABE Web site there are some pages SAES faculty from many disciplines will find worth checking regularly. The professional conference and meeting listing includes calls for papers. Of interest to SAES students are the Web page listing scholarships and student competitions, and the ASABE Career Center.

SAES research arose in City of Roses

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:45:12 -0500

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) held its annual meeting in Portland, Ore., July 9 to 12, and the SAES delegation came home with a leadership position in the organization and a considerable amount of publicity for SAES research work.

Dr. Yebo Li of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design was elected chair of the ASABE Biological Engineering Division for 2006-2007.

SAES research was well represented at technical sessions. Principal investigators with projects presented to the 9,000-member ASABE were:
• Dr. Jianmei Yu ("Antioxidative and Antibacterial Effects of Peanut Skin Extract in Selected Food Models")
• Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna ("Production of Pecan Shell-based Activated Carbon: Process Optimization for Efficient Water Purification")
• Dr. Yebo Li ("Separation and Recovery of Lactic Acid from Fermentation Bath Using Nanofiltration Membrane" and "Semi-Continuous Production of Lactic Acid from Cheese Whey Using Integrated Membrane Reactor")
• Dr. Ghasem Shahbazi ("Lactic Acid Production from Cheese Whey Using Free Cell of B. Longum")
• Dr. Salam Ibrahim ("Application of Ascorbic Acid and Palmitoryl Ascorbate to Inhibit the Growth of Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 in Laboratory Medium"; "Effect of Different Spices on Growth of Organic Acid Production and Antibacterial Activity by Bifidobacterium Longum"; "Fatty Acids and Surfactants as Growth Promoting Factors for Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus reuteri"; "Antibacterial Activity of Chives against Salmonella in Culture Medium"; and "Antimicrobial Effect of Lactic Acid Alone or in Combination with Caffeine and Copper on Growth of Escheria coli 0157:H7 in Laboratory Media")
• Dr. Hong Yang ("Preparation of Activated Carbons from North Carolina Agricultural By-products by Phosphoric Acid")

Other members of SAES research faculty who contributed to these projects are recognized in the meeting program.

Laurent Ahiablame, a student in the Bioenvironmental Engineering Program, had a paper on “Fifty-five years of Agricultural Engineering at N.C. A&T State University” entered in the student paper competition. Ahiablame was also part of a team of Bioenvironmental Engineering students, along with Lisa Means and Bryan Taliaferro, who presented a paper on “Biodiesel: A Sustainable Fuel Solution for Small and Medium Size Agricultural Cooperatives.”

The ASABE, which is both a scientific and educational organization, will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2007. The ASABE is an international clearinghouse for research in biological, food, and agricultural engineering. The ASABE membership also includes scientists and other professionals specializing in farm safety, nursery and greenhouse operations, power systems, and farm machinery and structures.

Soybean power

Wed, 24 May 2006 16:19:29 -0500

A team of Bioenvironmental Engineering students was awarded $5,000 by the American Public Power Association for a project they submitted under the Demonstration of Energy-Efficient Developments (DEED) program. The student proposal was "Biodiesel: A Sustainable Fuel Solution for Small/Medium Agricultural Cooperatives." Biodiesel fuels, which are derived from canola, soybeans and other renewable resources, have potential for reducing fuel costs for diesel engines at the same time that they produce emissions that are more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based diesel fuel. The award-winning students are Laurent Ahiablame, Lisa Means, Janie McClurkin and Bryan Taliaferro. Along with the $5,000 prize for their proposal, the students were also invited to present the project results at the 2006 Engineering and Operations Technical Conference in Sacramento, Cal., in April.

"These students were working on their senior engineering design project," says Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi, director of the Bioenvironmental Engineering Program. "The proposal foresees a cooperative where farmers would grow oil seeds, like soybeans, and the co-op would extract the oil from the seed and process it to make biodiesel. Some of this fuel would then be returned to co-op members for use in their farming operations."

SAES researcher lands $1.2 million grant

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 16:41:03 -0500

Dr. Manuel Reyes, associate professor of bioenvironmental engineering, will lead a team of scientists that has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development and Virginia Polytechnic and State University for an agroforestry and sustainable vegetable production research project in Southeast Asia. The team of scientists will come from U.S. and Southeast Asian universities, the World Agroforestry Center in Kenya, the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, and the candy and food company Mars, Inc.

Reyes' team will be investigating new ways for adapting drip irrigation, conservation tillage, integrated pest management and other sustainable production practices to the sociology and economics of under-developed nations in Southeast Asia. There will be research sites in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Two points of emphasis in the project will be agroforestry - planting income-producing trees Ñ and improving the well-being of women in small-scale agriculture. For further details on the grant, check out the press release at

Dr. Howard-Yana Shapiro, a scientist from Mars Inc., who will be collaborating with Dr. Reyes, is coming to the Webb Hall auditorium to present a seminar on "The Story of Sustainable Cocoa: Reducing poverty, improving lives, protecting the environment one chocolate bar at a time" on March 20. His presentation will begin at 1 p.m.

Award winners

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:14:15 -0500

The following SAES faculty and staff were honored along with students at the April 15 awards banquet:

Dr. Jane Walker of the Department of Human Environment and Family Sciences received the Gamma Sigma Delta Award of Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Tracy Hanner of the Department of Animal Sciences was named Academic Advisor of the Year.

Each year, one faculty member from each of the seven schools and colleges within the university is selected for the Teacher of the Year Award, and Dr. Ghasem Shahbazi of the Bioenvironmental Engineering Program was the SAES recipient for the 2004-05 academic year.

Dr. Ipek Goktepe of the Department of Human Environment and Family Sciences was the recipient of this year's Outstanding Young Investigator Award, presented by the Division of Research and Economic Development.

The Golden LEAF team won the collaboration award. Team members are: Drs. Keith Baldwin, Godfrey Ejimakor, Marihelen Glass, Jimo Ibrahim, Carl Niedziela, John O'Sullivan, M.R. Reddy, Chang Seo, Vestal Shirley, Chuck Talbott, Willie Willis, Millie Worku, Guochen Yang, and Anthony Yeboah; and SAES staff members Anthony Hooks, Mary Mafuyai-Ekanem, Marsha McGraw and Grace Summers.

Complete details on the awards and the award winners will appear in the June issue of On The Move.

SAES achievers awarded FUTURES scholarships

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 17:38:47 -0500

Twelve high achieving Aggies recently earned scholarships to study biotechnology through the FUTURES Interdisciplinary Biotechnology and Biodiversity Project. The awards were presented March 17 by Dr. Guochen Yang of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, and Dr. N. Radhakrishnan, A&T's vice chancellor for research and economic development. Scholarship criteria included a GPA of at least 3.5, and a strong interest in pursuing a career in biotechnology and biodiversity. Recipients also must conduct independent research under the supervision of a faculty mentor, and then submit a report on their findings.

Students receiving the awards were: Siham Ahmed of Greensboro, a master's student of food sciences and nutrition; Theophilus Asante, of Ghana, a master's student majoring in plant, soil and environmental sciences; Carinthia Cherry of Windsor, a master's student majoring in food and nutritional sciences; Deidra Felton of Morehead City, a senior majoring in food and nutritional sciences; Thomas Lynge of Lexington, a junior majoring in bioenvironmental engineering; Antrison Morris of India, a master's student majoring in food sciences; William W. Pettiford of Greensboro, a junior majoring in political science; Somphavanh "Lonnie" Phetsomphou of High Point, a senior majoring in food sciences; Tammy Putmon of Syracuse, NY, a master's student in animal health sciences; Khalilah Taylor of Murfreesboro, a master's student majoring in food and nutritional sciences, Kasey Vaughans of Greensboro, a graduate student majoring in plant, soil and environmental sciences, and Eric Wilson of Brevard, a master's student majoring in food sciences.