During harvest time, tractors pull grain trailers beside combines to catch the golden streams of dried corn and soybeans pushed overhead by an auger unloader. While scenic, the work is not always easy nor the technology perfect.

The modern day auger was designed in the 1940s and hasn’t changed much since. It works by spinning a screw-like helix inside, pushing the grain upwards. It hangs stationary off the left side of the combine, meaning that grain can only be unloaded from that one side. The tractor and grain trailer can’t drive through a standing crop, so they have to wait for the combine to turn around.

Five agricultural systems management seniors in Purdue’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) rose to the challenge to develop a new unloader for their capstone project, with the goal to save farmers time and money.

Robert Stwalley III, clinical associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Roger Tormoehlen, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and their published book “Advanced Design Topics for the Engineering of Agricultural and Mechanical Equipment.”

Hydroponics – growing crops in nutrient-enriched water instead of soil – is a growing area of agriculture that presents special challenges for growers. Bacteria and biofilms (aggregations of microorganisms) in the systems can sicken and kill plants, reducing yield and costing farmers millions of dollars.

Purdue College of Agriculture engineer Caitlin Proctor, who recently received a major grant from the USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), is studying potential solutions to these problems.

Three Purdue Agriculture student athletes — Ally Wigand, Lana Malek and Quintin Lowe — were named Academic All-Big Ten honorees for the Spring 2026 sports season. The honor recognizes student athletes who achieved grade-point averages of 3.00 or higher while competing at the highest levels of collegiate athletics. All three are multi-year recipients, reflecting their continued commitment to excellence both on and off the field.

At 25, Noah Berning has already accomplished a goal held since middle school: he’s going to work for John Deere.

NASA’s new generation of Artemis missions will take humanity back to the moon and beyond. Marshall Porterfield, professor of biological engineering and space biophysics at Purdue University, in an effort to solve a physical problem of space exploration, recently published research focusing on human respiration under microgravity.

“On Earth, the air around the body flows up, bringing fresh oxygen to the face and taking the carbon dioxide up and away,” Porterfield said. This phenomenon, called buoyancy-driven convection, doesn't exist in the microgravity of space and the moon. “In microgravity, carbon dioxide ends up being trapped in front of your face. You end up being trapped in your own bubble of carbon dioxide.”

Brandon Mar’s early Purdue experience was rough. He hasn’t shied away from admitting that, calling his first year “a circus” and “tumultuous” when reflecting after his honoring as a Fellow in September 2024. While he wondered at the time if he would make it out of first-year engineering (FYE), Mar ultimately made it out, into a major and all the way to graduation, leaving a positive impact as he grew and gave.
His “caring, passionate, energetic and positive” personality has been an asset to his current lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he pursues a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences. Mar’s research at Purdue focused on drug development in the Low Research Lab and bacteriophage proteins in the Clase Lab. Now working with Nicholas Kalogriopoulos in his Madison lab, Mar explores the use of cell therapies with synthetic G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to dismantle solid tumor growths.

Purdue University researchers have developed a novel, patent-pending process to synthesize soybean-based biokerosene that can be blended for use in cold-weather biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel. Biokerosene fuel blends also emit lower levels of greenhouse gases and expand the market for locally grown soybeans.

The biokerosene was developed and tested by Nathan Mosier, Indiana Soybean Alliance Soybean Utilization Endowed Chair and head of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Junli Liu, senior bioprocess engineering research scientist, and graduate student Elena Robles Molina, all working in Purdue’s Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering. The Indiana Soybean Alliance funded the research, which was published in Biofuel Research Journal.

Converting aquaculture sludge with a natural microbial process into a viable renewable biofuel presents a mind-numbing chess match of biochemical variables. This process — anaerobic digestion — involves microbes operating in a no-oxygen environment.

“Although the anaerobic digestion technology has been employed for more than a hundred years all over the world, there is still a lot that we need to investigate,” said Jiqin Ni, professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University.

Roadside mowing is inherently dangerous, time-consuming and costly.

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) spends approximately $18 million annually maintaining more than 40,000 acres of roadside vegetation. Contractors must often operate just feet from high-speed traffic, sometimes crossing into travel lanes and navigating around obstacles hidden in tall grass.

To address the challenges facing mower operators, INDOT partnered with Purdue on a research project funded through the Joint Transportation Research Program. Led by John Evans, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering (ABE) in Purdue’s College of Agriculture and mechanical engineering (by courtesy) in the College of Engineering, the project explores whether autonomous mowing systems could improve safety and efficiency.