These capstone projects are just a sampling of the types of problems senior students are capable of solving.

Screen designed to filter soybean flakes
     The South Dakota Soybean Processors plant at Volga may be running more smoothly today thanks to three agricultural systems technology majors at South Dakota State University (SDSU).
     Travis Arends, Beau Wisness, and Justin Van Veen, all seniors at SDSU, say their capstone project was a chance to put their textbook knowledge to use in a real workplace.
     Van Kelley, head of SDSU’s Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, says it is common practice for students in his design management experience course to tackle actual problems from industry.
     As it turns out, the soybeancrushing plant at Volga had one — design a screen to filter soybean flakes from the soybean oil with the capability to run 2,271 liters (600 gallons) a minute, year round, without plugging. The plant had experienced problems with flakes gradually blocking the flow of the oil/hexane mixture in the distillation columns and occasionally had to shut down to clean them out.

Justin Van Veen, Beau Wisness, and Travis Arends, seniors at SDSU, designed a screen filter for the soybean processing plant pictured above.

     John Prohaska, a graduate of SDSU’s Ag and Biosystems Engineering Department, worked with the SDSU students to let them know what the company needed.
     “The company basically said, here is a problem, go fix it,” says Arends, who works part-time at the plant while continuing his studies.
     The screen had to have absolutely no moving or electric parts to avoid any chance of sparks. That is because the Volga plant, in its process of removing oil from the soybeans, uses a highly flammable chemical called hexane.
     South Dakota Soybean Processors also gave a mandatory deadline. The screen had to be ready to install by the first week of May, when the plant was shut down for maintenance. Otherwise, it would have to wait another year.
     “Procrastination wasn’t an option,” Wisness says.
     “It was a good experience,” Van Veen says. “We started with nothing, basically, and just began brainstorming about possible solutions.”
     He adds that there was a lot of hands-on work involved, too. Arends, Van Veen, and Wisness built their own test apparatus and took it to the plant to experiment with various design features.
     “They had to come up with design parameters: what size screen to use, the flow it could handle, the angle at which it should be placed,” Kelley says. “And they had to be pretty close to right. You only get one stab at it.”
     Arends adds that the three talked to plant personnel for additional input about design features that could make it easier to service and maintain the screen.
     Once they had tested a model, they drew up plans for the actual tent screen that would be used in the plant. They sent those plans to a fabricator in Sioux City, Iowa who built the screen to required specifications. Thanks, in part, to a large investment of time outside of class, the screen was designed and ready to be installed in May, just as the company ordered.
     “It’s on line and working very well,” says Prohaska, the engineering coordinator for the company. “We use it every day to help keep our process working efficiently.”
     Prohaska says this was at least the fourth year South Dakota Soybean Processors has worked with Kelley’s students. In past years the students have helped design meal sifters, a new conveyance system, and a new storage system.
     “It’s a great working relationship for both SDSU and the company,” Prohaska says. “We get dividends in the long term. If we can capture the interest of just one student, it will benefit our entire industry.”

Food waste composted from residence halls
     ASAE member Nathan Rice and Kerry Trambaugh developed a plan for collecting and transporting food waste from residence halls for their senior capstone project at Purdue University.
     Rice and Trambaugh’s objective was to estimate the volume of waste produced from serving more than 3 million meals yearly and developing a plan for collecting and transporting the waste from Purdue’s residence halls to the compost site.
     Organic food waste, when combined and composted with other feedstocks such as leaves, woodchips, and manure, makes a great soil additive. Composting these wastes also reduces landfill fees and could possibly produce a marketable product.

Food waste from the residence halls are collected in four wheel bins.

     Data was collected to quantify the amount of food waste generated at each dining hall. The information gathered included volume, weight, and density samples. The average density after pulping was determined to be 240 kilograms per cubic meter (15 pounds per cubic foot) of waste. The average moisture content was 76 percent. A formula was developed to predict the volume of waste based on the number of meals served.
     The analyses showed that the volume of waste from the residence halls varied from about 11 to 100 liters (0.4 to 3.5 cubic feet) per day. Annually, the residence halls at Purdue University are expected to generate slightly more than 145 metric tons (160 tons) of organic food waste. If this much waste were diverted from the local landfill, approximately $5,600 would be saved.
     After studying the volumes of waste generated and evaluating several collection methods, Rice and Trambaugh recommended that 215-liter (7.6 cubic feet) bins equipped with four wheels be used to collect and temporarily store the waste at each residence hall.

Students design irrigation system for turf farm
     When Jim Keeven was thinking about updating the irrigation system on his 105-hectare (260-acre) Emerald View Turf Farm in Missouri, he did not expect to get help from a college class.
     But that’s how it turned out. A team of four students in a University of Missouri-Columbia agricultural systems management capstone course were assigned to design a new irrigation system.
     “We wanted to simplify the system by increasing watering capacity and reducing labor intensity,” says student Joe Steuber of Vienna, Mo.
     Keeven relocated his farm operation to its current location in the Missouri River bottomland following the flood of 1993. He had to design an irrigation system with limited resources.
     The current system is composed of a center pivot that covers about 41 hectares (100 acres), plus three hard-hose traveling guns and a side roll system to cover the remaining acreage.
     Keeven now plans to upgrade the system with an additional well and center pivot. The students studied the prospects for installing a new well and pump, a center pivot or lateral move system, and reworking the area utilizing traveling guns.
     A major focus of turf grass production is removing the grass once it has been cut. Dry roads are needed to transport equipment to and from the fields. Because irrigation occurs daily, these roads restrict the area that can be irrigated.
     Another problem is that a halfinch of topsoil is removed every time the grass is stripped off. The farm, which produces mostly tall fescue, also is irregular in its shape and contour. The combination of these restraints made many systems impractical, the students say.
     They proposed a new system that uses the existing center pivot plus a new center pivot and well, five new runs for the traveling guns, and five solid set sprinklers. It would cost about $63,500.
     “The students did a great job. They worked hard and gave me ideas I had not thought of,” Keeven says.

Variable Rate Seeding Simulator Created
     As part of their senior capstone project, Rick Hoeing, Aaron Hacker, and Jonathan Okos created a physical device which simulates all aspects of variable rate seeding and provides for hands-on experiences in a laboratory environment.
     The three Purdue University students created the Variable-Rate Seeding Simulator using a Case- IH Model 1200 planter row unit mounted over a conveyor as shown below. A shop vacuum provides the vacuum necessary for seed metering.

The Variable-Rate Seeding Simulator

     A Dickey-john Radar speed sensor provides speed signals to the Rawson Accu-Rate controller and the Dj Seed Manager. Speed of the electrically-powered conveyor is adjusted manually. Power to turn the seed metering mechanisms in the planter row unit is provided by a Parker-Hannifin hydraulic power supply.
     In the non-global positioning system (non-GPS) mode, the Accu-Rate controller can be used to manually change the seeding rate. When the Accu-Rate controller is in the GPS mode, it accepts seed rate information electronically from an AgLeader PF 3000. Variable-rate seeding maps are created with guidance information system software and transferred to the PF 3000 via a PCMCIA card. A National Marine Electronics Association simulator running on a laptop PC sends GPS latitude and longitude position information to the PF 3000. These coordinates must be previously recorded and stored on the laptop disk.

The Variable-Rate Seeding Simulator team consists of (l to r): Aaron Hacker, Rick Hoeing, and Jonathan Okos.

     With the simulator, the students are able to manually adjust the desired seed population, set the forward speed, and measure the seeds dropped per minute. The students can then compute the seed population (seeds per hectare or acre) based on the forward speed and row spacing.
     To test their results, the students used the Dickey-john Seed Manager which provides an applied seed population reading. This reading can then be compared to the observedcalculated values and desired values.

Special thanks to Van Kelley, South Dakota State University, Gaines Miles, Purdue University, and Robert Thomas, University of Missouri, for providing capstone projects information.