Our next drive will be Thursday, August 27, in ABE 301  from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm. Please make your appointment if you are able to donate. If you donated at the July 2 drive, you are eligible for this drive as well.

You'll have someone's undying gratitude! Contact Carol Weaver  if you have problems making your appointment.

ABE is among 8 of the 15 schools of engineering to finish the ABET accreditation will full marks! Congratulations for all of your hard work. Special thanks to Drs. Engel, Stroshine, Rickus, Cherkauer, Lumkes, and Okos and Sally Weaver for helping us through the process. What we do here matters!

Keith Cherkauer and Bernie Engel traveled to the University Federal Vicosa in Brazil to discuss opportunities with our counterparts and to participate in “Purdue Day” which was held on October 4.  Bernie and Keith spent a day with our colleagues in Agricultural Engineering discussing opportunities for student exchanges and joint research.  During the day in Agricultural Engineering and Purdue Day, Keith and Bernie talked with numerous Purdue ABE alumni.  Our alumni recounted many stories of their positive experiences at Purdue in our program.

Bernie traveled from Brazil to Argentina to visit with ABE alumni to discuss opportunities for joint research on October 7 and 8.

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Bernie Engel traveled to Beijing, China for meetings with faculty, staff and students at China Agricultural University (CAU) from October 28 – October 31.  CAU is the top ranked Agricultural Engineering program in China.  The primary focus of the visit was to discuss a special 2+2 undergraduate program and streamlining of courses at CAU with Purdue ABE requirements. CAU will recruit a class of freshmen that will pursue coursework that aligns with the requirements of the 1^st two years within ABE. These students will then transfer to Purdue ABE to complete their final two years, graduating with degrees from both Purdue ABE and CAU. Faculty in this program are also interested in growing collaborative research efforts with Purdue ABE. Additional discussions of this program will be held at upcoming faculty meetings.

Bernie also visited Tianjin Agricultural University following the CAU visit to discuss opportunities for joint research.

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Stan Harlow will be leaving for Haiti on November 9. For seven days, he will assist a team of dentists from Kokomo, Indiana, who have been traveling to the same village for the past ten years. Though it is Stan's first trip, he is expected to be a tooth-pulling expert by the time he returns. The village has no electricity but does have some fresh well water. Making life better for others by pulling teeth as fast as they can for a week! Safe travels, Stan.

Jeff de Kozlowski, Development of a Starch-Based Mussel-Mimetic Adhesive Polymer, ABE 301 October 11, 2013 (Tao)

Carlos Campabadal, Ozonation Systems as a Non-Chemical Alternative for Stored Grain, NSLN 2187 9:00 am, October 29, 2013 (Stroshine, Maier)

Qingyu Feng, Biomass production and hydrological/water quality of perennial crop production on marginal land, ABE 301 2:30 pm October 23, 2013 (Chaubey)

Maha Abroad

Several Maha team members including Dr. Monika Ivantysynova, Dr. Andrea Vacca, Naseem Daher (PhD Candidate), Marco Zecchi (PhD Candidate), and Guido Ritelli (PhD Candidate), presented at the SAE 2013 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress (COMVEC) conference in Rosemont, IL. The team presented in several technical sessions such as “Efficiency, Energy Recovery, and Innovation in Fluid Power Systems” and “Modeling of Fluid Power Systems and Components”.

Several PhD Students pursuing a Hybrid Vehicle Systems Certificate (Naseem Daher, Dan Mizell, Tyler Bleazard, Enrique Busquets, and Mike Sprengel) attended the Hoosier Heavy Hybrid Center of Excellence Fall Seminar and Poster Show at Purdue’s Discovery Park.

Special Visitors

Dr. Ivantysynova’s hydraulic systems research group hosted JCB (J.C. Bamford) on October 30^th. JCB was happy to find their high expectations for the visit met and even surpassed and Maha looks forward to a potential future of collaboration.

Maha in the News

2013 Maha SURF student Yangqiao Zheng’s article entitled "Linear Controller Establishment for Displacement-control Pump Switching System" has been published in The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium. Yangqiao was mentored by Enrique Busquets (PhD Candidate). Congratulations to Yangqiao and Enrique!

PhD student Ram Sudarsan was featured in a Hydraulics and Pneumatics article (click here) on October 9^th regarding his paper, “Experimental Characterization of External Gear Machines with Asymmetric Teeth Profile”. Congratulations, Ram!

Maha Lab Manager, Anthony Franklin was featured in Purdue’s October 2013 edition Momentum Makers article (click here). Maha is very grateful to Anthony for all his hard work in making Maha a world-class research facility!

Awards & Degree Milestones

Maha is happy to announce that Dr. Ivantysynova has been elected to SAE Fellow, SAE’s premier membership grade, intended to “honor and recognize important engineering, scientific, and leadership achievements to enhance the status of SAE’s contributions to the profession and to society.”

The SAE Fellows Committee selected Dr. Ivantysynova for her outstanding achievements in fluid power research including developing energy efficient systems for mobile vehicle applications. Dr. Ivantysynova will be honored during the SAE 2014 World Congress and Exhibition in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. the week of April 6, 2014.

Andrew Schenk (PhD Candidate) gave a successful Doctoral preliminary thesis defense on November 7th entitled “Predicting Lubrication Performance between the Slipper and Swashplate in Axial Piston Hydraulic Machines”. Congratulations to Andrew on his excellent work!

Larry Theller, GIS specialist, brought back some winning results from yesterday's event: Tim Wright won first place and a $50 gift card for "Retrofitting LID practices into Existing Neighborhoods: Is it worth it?," and Kirsten Paff won second place and a $50 gift card for "Estimation of Two-Stage Ditch Excavation Volume Using Lidar." Congratulations to Larry and his students - way to represent!

President Mitch Daniels, Dean Akridge, and Dean Jamieson joined us to celebrate the third consecutive year atop the US News & World Report rankings for ABE programs on November 6.

ABE Alum Gerald Powell of Dow AgroSciences visited in ASM 42100 (Senior Seminar) and had some very good counsel worth sharing. He shared his "5 BEs":

• Be ready to work hard and smart
• BE ready to show the value of what you are doing
• BE ready to be on teams and run projects
• BE ready to learn and adapt
• BE balanced

A panel discussion in ABE 49000 on Thursday, November 6, included six alumni who are entrepreneurs: Joe Garwood, Mark Zeltwanger, Dr. Paul Elliott, Ron Thieme, Ed Vondell, and Dr. Steve Waltz. The two-hour session was encouraging and enlightening; a number of the students continued their conversation with our alums over lunch. The Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture Jay Akiridge and the College of Agriculture hosted an evening session featuring five alumni from five different departments: Dr. Barb Cohen (BCHM 1979), Malcom DeKryger (ANSC 1983), Kim DeWees (AGEC 1995), Joe Garwood (ASM 1978), and Mona Wolf (FS 1972).