In March, the Women in Engineering Program hosted a Joint Mentoring Awards Dinner. The undergradudate and graduate awardees were both ABE students!

Jen Kahn
Emily M. Wadsworth Graduate Mentoring Award

and

Jordyn McCord
Emily M. Wadsworth Undergraduate Mentoring Award

Both are pictured below with Emily Wadsworth (Jordyn on the left, Jen on the right)

Way to represent, ladies - we are proud of you!

The Renewable Energy extension group has received a USDA REAP  Energy Audit and Rural Energy Development Assistance Grant. The $100,000 is being provided to conduct 45 energy audits for ag producers in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio, with an emphasis on irrigation, livestock housing, and dairy farm operations.

AgrAbility

Indiana AgrAbility rural rehabilitation specialist Steve Swain along with Bill Begley from Life Essentials met with the staff of the Danville, Indiana WorkOne office and the regional directors of Vocational Rehabilitation Services at the Danville, Indiana WorkOne office.   The presentation included information about AgrAbility services and rural assistive technology.  Mr. Begley presented Life Essentials product information and demonstrated the Life Essentials truck lift.

Steve Swain, Indiana AgrAbility rural rehabilitation specialist, presented the concepts of universal design and home modifications at the Tippecanoe County Public Library.  Examples of universal design and home modifications were included along with much discussion.  The presentation was one of the libraries monthly information sessions which is open to the public.

Steve Swain, Indiana AgrAbility rural rehabilitation specialist, presented a webinar to the Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation services staff as part of their Friendly Friday Chat.  The Friendly Friday Chat is a means for the Indiana VR supervisors to provide in-service training to their 24 regional offices and 214 counselors and case coordinators.  The webinar included history of Indiana AgrAbility, services offered to VR, and examples of assistive technology available to their consumers.  A question and answer session followed the presentation.

Grants funded

A Trask Innovation Fund (TIF) in the amount of $43,629 was awarded to Jenna Rickus (PI), Sherry Harbin (Co-PI), and Craig Goergen (Co-PI) for “Biosilica-islets 2.0: Biosilification of therapeutic stem cells to treat type I diabetes” 

ASABE Blue Ribbon Awards

The following will receive Blue Ribbon Awards at the Annual meeting in New Orleans:

“Technical Assistance Program on Commodity Protection and Stored Grain Management in Nigeria ” in the Innovative Extension Methods or Impact Assessment category, and its three authors: Klein Ileleji, Samuel McNeill, and George Opit

“AgrAbility Webinar Series” in the Electronic Delivery category, and its four authors: Paul Jones, Cliff Racz, William Field, and Kate Hamm

"Flag the Technology Cloud (FTTCloud)" in the Electronic Delivery category, and its three authors: Dharmendra Saraswat, Ben Hancock, and Bob Scott

Favorite Faculty banquet honors outstanding faculty

Professor Jenna Rickus was honored at the event as Most Distinguished Faculty for Research. Congratulations, Jenna!

Maha Events: CCEFP IEC SUMMIT

On June 3^rd , the Maha Fluid Power Research Center had the privilege of hosting the CCEFP IEC (Center for Compact & Efficient Fluid Power Industry Engagement Committee) summit. The event was attended by over 45 representatives from more than 30 companies, along with 35 CCEFP students and staff. The Maha laboratory presented its latest innovations, including the world’s first blended hydraulic hybrid SUV. Attendees enjoyed a poster presentation of the ongoing research projects and machine demonstrations of a novel DC (displacement-controlled) hybrid excavator and the world’s first DC steer-by-wire wheel loader. The day ended with a delicious hog roast— an opportunity for those from academia and those from industry to digest the avalanche of information from the poster presentation, to swap stories from work, and of course to throw around new ideas.

Maha Surf Students/Visiting Researchers/New Graduate Researchers

The Maha center will host four SURF students this summer: Dhruv Subramaniam, Karina Bjorklund, Pratik Chawla, and Italo Ramos. Furthermore, Nate Keller and Xinran Zhao have joined the center as graduate students, and Bruno Emerick is joining as a visiting researcher from Brazil. The Maha center would like to welcome all of its new researchers and to wish them success in their research.

Maha Prelim

On May 6, Damiano Padovani held his preliminary Ph.D. defense entitled “Investigation of Novel Displacement-Controlled Hydraulic Architectures for Railway Construction & Maintenance Machines.” Congratulations Damiano on a successful preliminary defense!

The PUP team that traveled to Cameroon in May has some pictures to share.