RESOURCE

Ron Leonard says the future of tractors is "not just making them bigger, but making them smarter."

Within the past year, consulting engineer Rodney Nohr and his associates have traveled to China, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan and Egypt.

University professors in biological and agricultural engineering departments in the United States say their graduates are having no problem finding work.

As Todd Nester comforted his wife, Tracy, during her recent labor and delivery at a North Carolina hospital, his eyes often glanced at the nearby intravenous packet that dripped a prescribed solution into her arm.

So, what is a capstone anyway?
A capstone design course is the culmination of engineering education programs. The course takes its name from the finishing "capstone" layer a stone mason puts on top of a wall. Like this layer, the capstone design project "tops off" a student's engineering education. Through it, students realize they really are engineers now -- capable and confident of solving real engineering problems for real clients.

After interviewing the client -- who might be an individual, a company or a government agency -- it is the student's responsibility to solve the client's problem. During the course, the students draw on all of their previous courses and experiences to design a solution.

Working alone or in teams, they establish their objectives, determine and evaluate various solutions, and complete a detailed engineering analysis for the best solution. Throughout the course, they give presentations to their client and their class. When they need advice, a faculty member is at hand for consultations.

The capstone projects presented here are just a sampling of the types of problems senior students choosing our profession are capable of solving. In four short years, you could be doing work every bit as exciting. For more information on the types of engineering careers and opportunities afforded to you, contact any of the departments listed under "Make Your Dream Career a Reality: Where to Start.".

Glenn J. Hoffman, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, University of Nebraska

Anna Rodriguez took a job as an environmental quality specialist for a state agency in Texas thinking the position would be a stepping stone to something bigger and better. But six years later she is still there -- and enjoying every minute of it.

It would be unlikely for a student to find a course on how to build a bioreactor in a college brochure. But graduate student Jim Russell had the chance to design such a machine during his studies in Rutgers University's Bioresource Engineering program. A summer internship with Dynamac Corp., through a contract with the John F. Kennedy Space Center, gave him the opportunity.

To drain, or not to drain? That is the question professor Wayne Skaggs might ask his graduate students who are developing methods to measure water levels in soil.

These words come from Wayne Maley, a consultant with a professional engineering search company in St. Joseph, Michigan. At Wood Personnel Services, Maley recruits engineers to fill positions at companies throughout the world that are looking for specific skills.

Some people seem to grow up knowing what they're going to do with their lives. For others, the decision isn't so easy. These recent graduates made their career-track decisions in very different ways. And both are happy with the results.

She's engaged in acts of discovery
In her last year of high school, Valérie Orsat still hadn't decided what she wanted to study in college. "I applied for everything under the sun," she says, "figuring I'd wait and see where I got accepted. Well, I got accepted just about everywhere, so then it became a process of elimination. I knew I didn't want to be a lawyer or a doctor, and so it went until I finally ended up with agricultural engineering."

He decided what he wanted -- and went after it
Darrell McCauley was only 14 when he decided on a career in agricultural engineering. The decision, he says, was based on an awareness of his strengths (quantitative and analytical) and the need to fund his own education. "There's excellent financial support available in the area of agricultural engineering," he says.

From studying Panama's tropical rain forest to designing systems for growing plants in outer space, agricultural engineer John Sager has devoted his work to improving life for future generations.

Lured by the promise of big tips or fun, a lot of college students pursue part-time jobs in areas unrelated to their chosen career. A better long-term strategy, say engineers Jim Ryken and John Bradford, is to find a job that contributes to your education and helps you leapfrog into your career.

Co-op job leads to promising career
A senior project engineer with Sauer-Sundstrand, where Jim Ryker was hired five months before graduating, his first contact with Sauer-Sundstrand was at a job fair. He believes his experience as an engineering intern at Vermeer Manufacturing Co., where he worked during his college years, helped him land the job.

He put his summers to work
John Bradford, an environmental engineer with Exxon Co., USA, was recruited right out of college. "As soon as I graduated, I moved to Texas and went to work in my field." Bradford augmented his college education with summer internships. "I interned every summer," he says. "I found jobs that were related to what I wanted to do by looking in the yellow pages and calling up different places that might hire an environmental engineer."

Producing enough food to satisfy the world's hungry offers a continuing challenge for industry leaders such as Charles Sukup.

As a boy growing up in Nanjing, China, Jaw-Kai Wang had never heard of an agricultural engineer.

Talk to people who are working in the job of their dreams, and you'll hear the same refrain: Decide what you want and go for it. You can achieve your dream if you believe in yourself and go after it.

At work in the world's playland
"I never dreamed in a million years," says Kerwin Bradley, "that I would actually end up working here." In his junior year at the University of Idaho, a technical writing assignment required Bradley to research possible employers and put together a resumé. Taking the project one step further, he mailed the resumé to Walt Disney World, Epcot Science.

Luck = opportunity + preparation
"I believe 'luck' occurs when opportunity meets preparation," Rod Claycomb says. He should know. While doing research on the Internet one day, he happened upon an interesting job opening. Claycomb was prepared. Today, he's got that job at DDx, Incorporated, where he directs a team of engineers in the development and support of biosensors. This incredible technology can detect bacteria in food and biological warfare agents in air. Claycomb also supports a line of radio transmitters that detect estrus in cattle.

The United States imports more than 50 percent of its oil, says Phillip Badger, manager of the Southeastern Regional Biomass Energy Program.

Forest engineering is more than just harvesting trees for making wood products, says Union Camp Corp. Operations Manager Frank Corley.

Stuart Nelson works with the "dielectric properties phenomena." No, this is not a term from a science fiction movie describing robot invasions from another planet. It is the lifelong work of a research agricultural engineer.

What's your dream? Preserving the environment? Feeding the world?
ASAE can help you make it happen.
The American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE) is a not-for-profit professional and technical organization whose members are involved or interested in engineering and technology for agricultural, food and biological systems. With members in more than 100 countries, the Society offers every member a world of opportunities. And it's a great place to be a student.
Imagine attending an international meeting where world-renowned researchers are announcing the results of their work, applications of research are being discussed, industry standards are being developed, and lively debates about how best to use the planet's natural resources are taking place. As a student ASAE member, you would be welcome at any of these sessions. And that's only the beginning.

ASAE student members include some of the most involved young people in the world. And you can bet they're making a difference!

Recently, two ASAE student members brought a new and exciting annual competition to life -- the 1/4 scale tractor pull -- and two others provided the impetus for an ASAE-funded flood relief effort on behalf of the University of Colorado. Both of these achievements began with an idea, some determined students and a Society that empowered them to reach for a dream.

Three people died of electric shock in the United States in 1976 after touching improperly grounded irrigation equipment.

If any of the agricultural or biological engineering disciplines you've read about in this magazine sound like your dream career, you're in luck. More than 60 schools in the United States and Canada offer programs in agricultural or biosystems engineering and other related areas of study. Check out the list below and contact the schools that interest you. They'd be happy to arrange for you to visit their campus and learn more about their program.