The Purdue Student Soybean Innovation Competition Award Ceremony was held “live” on Facebook on Tuesday, April 21^st.  If you would like to see the Award Ceremony follow this link  -  http://bitly.ws/8uLr

This year 12 teams pitched for the top prizes with Team HerbiSoy being named the $20,000 winner! 

College of Agriculture students Alyson Chaney and Peyton Clark developed a soy-based herbicide that is more efficient than what is currently on the market and is safer for people, animals and pets.

Left to Right:  Peyton Clark, Alyson Chaney

The Second Place $10,000 winning team was Team Double B, who developed a safer and longer lasing soy-based dog chew, which also adds fiber and protein.

Left to Right:  Minghui Deng, Zhiyao Song

Third Place and $5,000 went to Team SoyFlex, who designed and developed an insert for shoes, which last longer and absorbs odors better than the current products on the market.

Left to Right:  Melanie Kaplan, Nolan Miller, Hannah Bentley

The People’s Choice Award of $500 went to Team 60 Soylution, who created a non-toxic and non cross-linking soy based composite material, in two forms.

Left to Right:  Tunn Prasoprat, Ratchaphak Tantisanghirun (ABE), Thiti Suttiyut, Isara Tangpoolcharoen

Other ABE teams –

Team SAGE:  Soy-based dryer ball

Left to Right Front:  Andres Dextre, Sarah Heffner

Left to Right Back:  Erick Forkpah, Jieun Lee

Team ProTEAn:  Soy-based tea bag

Left to Right:  Sean Renwick, Hailey Kitchell, Julia Mollenhauer

Team GoPoly:              Soy-based phone case and Senior Design Project

Left to Right:  Jingyuan Li, Zifeng Huang, Shuyi Peng, Kunming Shao

Other ABE Students –

Sarah Ettestad and Cassidy Lurk – Team Soyful Nails a soy-based nail powder dip

Congratulations to all teams and students – Great Job!

Mark Gee, BE 2019

Since graduating in 2019, I've been leading a team for the Rockefeller 2050 Food Systems Vision contest that is trying to bring Iowans together around achieving net-zero soil erosion. We advanced from 1500 applicants to one of 80 semifinalists, and will hear back in August if we are selected as one of the ten finalists.  

So much of what I learned at Purdue found its way into the application and I appreciate the advice you gave me.

Nan Hammel, AE 2020

Nan is with Casas for Cristo. Check our her newsletter!

Professor Nadia Gkritza has been appointed as a member of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Food Transportation - AT030 by the Transportation Research Board (TRB). Her term began April 13, 2020, and will run through April 14, 2022. Congratulations, Dr. Gkritza! You represent us well.

May was filled with catching up on projects and answering VR farm assessment questions and supplying quotes. It also included the attempt to conduct a virtual farm assessment of completed VR farm modifications (notice it was an attempt). We participated in a Zoom meeting with the Indiana VR home modification workgroup and Indiana Director of Project Initiatives. We have transitioned from being able to conduct farm assessments to  being unable, to allowed with a mask and social distancing.  Farmers want to see us and be able to discuss matters in a more relaxed environment.

As a part of the AgrAbility team, we have attended weekly Zoom meetings with Ag & Natural Resource Extension Educators with updates on Covid-19 and extension activities. We have also taken part in multiple webinars related to Covid-19 and conducted follow-up calls and e-mail communications with clients and vendors.

Karthik Salish, Gretchen A Mosher, RP Kingsly Ambrose. 2020. Developing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to Predict the Contamination of GM Corn in Non-GM Corn. Applied Engr in Agriculture 36 (1), 25-31

Le Zhang, Qing-Xing Qu, Wen-Yu Chao, Vincent G Duffy. 2020. Investigating the Combination of Adaptive UIs and Adaptable UIs for Improving Usability and User Performance of Complex UIs. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 36 (1), 82-94

Qingyu Feng, Dennis C Flanagan, Bernard A Engel, Lei Yang, Liding Chen. 2020. GeoAPEXOL, a web GIS interface for the Agricultural Policy Environmental eXtender (APEX) model enabling both field and small watershed simulation. Environmental Modelling & Software 123, January 2020, 104569

Xiaoyun Wang, La Zhuo, Chong Li, Bernard A Engel, Shikun Sun, Yubao Wang. 2020. Temporal and spatial evolution trends of drought in northern Shaanxi of China: 1960–2100. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 139 (3), 965-979

Xinjie Tong, Lingying Zhao, Albert J Heber, Ji-Qin Ni. 2020. Mechanistic modelling of ammonia emission from laying hen manure at laboratory scale. Biosystems Engr 192, 24-41

Jason Ostanek, Klein Ileleji. 2020. Conjugate heat and mass transfer model for predicting thin-layer drying uniformity in a compact, crossflow dehydrator. Drying Technology 38 (45-6), 775-792

Eeshan Kumar, Dharmendra Saraswat, Gurdeep Singh. 2020. Comparative Analysis of Bioenergy Crop Impacts on Water Quality Using Static and Dynamic Land Use Change Modeling Approach. Water 12 (2), 410

Venkata Sai Gargeya Vunnava, Shweta Singh. 2020. Spatial Life Cycle Analysis of Soybean-Based Biodiesel Production in Indiana, USA Using Process Modeling. Processes 8 (4), 392

Davis Chacon-Hurtado, Indraneel Kumar, Konstantina Gkritza, Jon D Fricker, Lionel J Beaulieu. 2020. The role of transportation accessibility in regional economic resilience. Journal of Transport Geography 84, 102695Hui-Hui Wang, Mingla Charoenmuang, Neil A Knobloch, Roger L Tormoehlen. 2020. Defining interdisciplinary collaboration based on high school teachers’ beliefs and practices of STEM integration using a complex designed system. International Journal of STEM Educ 7 (1), 1-17

Linlin Li, Xu Wang, Mary C Mullins, David M Umulis. 2020. Evaluation of BMP-mediated patterning in a 3D mathematical model of the zebrafish blastula embryo. Journal of Mathematical Bio 80 (1), 505-520

David Umulis, Sarah Calve, Dagmar Iber. 2020. Special Issue Preface. Developmental Dynamics 249 (3), 269

WK Su, MR Lehto, DD Degnan, Y Yih, VG Duffy, P DeLaurentis. 2020. Healthcare Professionals Risk Assessments for Alert Overrides in High-Risk IV Infusions Using Simulated Scenarios.DOI: 10.1111/risa.13489 PMID: 32339316

Renata MRG Almeida, Michael R Ladisch. 2020. Enzyme interactions on lignocellulosic biomass structure. Ch 3 in Recent Advances in Bioconversion of Lignocellulose to Biofuels and Value Added Chemicals Within the Biorefinery Concept, Elsevier, 2020, 262 pgs.

Naagarajan Narayanan, Paul Lengemann, Kun Ho Kim, Liangiu Kuang, Tiago Sobreira, Victoria Hedrick, Uma K. Aryanl, Shihuan Kuang, Meng Deng. 2020. Harnessing Nerve‐Muscle Cell Interactions for Biomaterials‐based Skeletal Muscle Regeneration. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm.a.37022

Zhangpu Chen, Carl Wassgren, Eric Veikle, Kingsly Ambrose. 2020. Determination of material and interaction properties of maize and wheat kernels for DEM simulation. Biosystems Engrng 195, 208-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2020.05.007

Emma C. Brace, Abigail S. Engelberth. 2020. Assessing Viability of Soybean Oils to Remove Hydrogen Sulfide from Natural Gas. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2020 https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c01991

Chacón–Hurtado, D., Losada Rojas, L.L., K. Gkritza, J. Fricker, D. Yu. 2020. A Proposed Framework for the Incorporation of Economic Resilience into Transportation Decision Making, ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering, doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000834

Mandy Limiac, lab manager for the Environmental Quality Lab (with Sara McMillan) is participating in the annual 4-H Academy a little differently this year! Because they had to go virtual, she created 2 hands-on videos students could watch and participate with from home. One video about engineering design and filter building and another on groundwater contamination can be found on the Ecology & Biogeochemistry of Wetlands Lab Youtube page. You can check them out (and share pics of your completed projects!) here: https://youtu.be/_pryUk3VtFw and https://youtu.be/R05oUZb3lnY