“We have nothing to deal with that at all, and I think that’s an area we have to deal with.”

Frankenberger’s concern is shared by some state lawmakers.

She hasn’t only been researching food security. Last summer, she traveled to Kenya where she was an intern for two months. This experience allowed her to immerse herself in a culture experiencing food insecurity.

Somali Chaterji and Caitlin Proctor, assistant professors of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University, share their experiences and how they became inspired to pursue their careers motivated by role models and early passions. They also explain why it is important for the field to be more representative and how they connect to this year’s theme, offering advice to early-career engineers.

"Having built and sustained a number-1-ranked department at Purdue for more than a dozen years, and then driving graduate student enrollment, scholarly impact and intellectual innovation across the college as senior associate dean, he has proved time and again his ability not only to impact the farms and fields of our state and world, but also to drive Purdue’s continuing excellence at scale."

Future SPARK application rounds are not yet on a definite schedule, but the next round is anticipated at the end of summer, assuming the availability of funds. For comprehensive SPARK information, including program format, eligibility, application process and evaluation criteria, visit the SPARK website.

ABE professors Carroll, Engelberth, Ni, and Simsek are collaborating on the team working to increase the production of seafood, known as "blue food," which is healthier and more sustainably produced than land-based foods.

“We don’t have enough data. One of the issues is the lack of appropriate measurement technology,” Ni said.

On a given sol at the Hab, GreenHab Officer Madelyn Whitaker was often tending to the thriving microgreens.

An agriculture-related project at Purdue University has created an open-source framework and community for sharing data and algorithms with the goal to improve sustainable food and agricultural systems to help feed the growing world population.

“Agriculture needs to convert data into information for making decisions. In India, there is a lot of infusion of drone technology and sensors, a plethora of data that is generated by their use could transform farming practices of small and marginal farmers there.”