Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering NewsletterDale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

and the College of Engineering

Engineering for Life

Lalit R. VermaDepartment Head

(See page 5)

SUMMER 2003

From the Head

Highlights and Presentations

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BAE Lifeline

InsideNew Staff Members...............................2Engineering Dean Hired..........................3Awards and Accomplishments................4New Graduate Students..........................52003 Summer Retreat...............................6

National Design Competition...................7Extension News........................................8Fellowships..............................................9Student Club News.................................10Calendar of Events..................................12

(See page 11)

Jin-Woo Kim was invited to present “Micro and Nano Sensors for Agriculture and FoodSystems” at the Technical Program of the Tri-national Workshop: Advances in Micro andNano Technologies for Sensing Applications on December 12-14, 2002, in Melbourne,Australia.

Tom Costello was awarded a NASA Faculty Fellowship for summer 2003. Costello workedon Advanced Life Support at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Thiswas his second summer working with Dr. John Sager and Dr. Ray Wheeler at NASA.

Danielle Julie Carrier served as a panel member for Fonds de recherché sur la nature etles technologies, Quebec, Canada, January 2003.

Mian Li, Mike Hanford, Jin-Woo Kim and Tonya L. Peeples presented “Modeling ofEnzymatic Reactions in Interfacial Catalysis” at the 94th AIChE Annual Meeting (Food,Pharmaceutical, and Bioengineering Session) in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Sarah Appel and Tracie Stauffer, graduate students of Danielle Julie Carrier and EdClausen, received 3rd place for their presentation at the Midwest American Institute ofChemical Engineering student competition, Lawrence, Kansas, April 5, 2003. The title oftheir presentation was “Extraction of Silymarin from Commercially Available DietarySupplements.”

Mian Li, Mike Hanford, Jin-Woo Kim, and Tonya L. Peeples presented “InterfacialCatalysis: Amyloglucosidase Entrapment in Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine MultilamellarVesicles” at the 224th American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting (Advances inBiocatalysis Session) at Boston, Massachusetts.

Seniors Win National Design CompetitionSee page 7 for details.

New Engineering Dean &Biomedical Faculty Member Hired

See page 3 for details.

It’s been a great spring andsummer for the department. Thesenior engineering design team wonfirst place at the International ASAEMeeting in Las Vegas. Congratula-tions to the team of WillieDillahunty, James Geurtz and ClayMcDaniel and faculty advisors TomCostello and Scott Osborn.

With support from the Collegesof Engineering and Agricultural,Food and Life Sciences we havehired our first Biomedical Engi-neering faculty. Dr. MahendraKavdia will start in October. EmWard, M.D., Ph.D., will be anAdjunct Assistant Professor in thedepartment. Three new adjunctfaculty supporting BiomedicalEngineering have joined the BAEGfamily. A proposal for Master ofScience in Biomedical Engineeringis also going through the approvalprocess at the University level.

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New Staff Members

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Moving, changing jobs, new happeningsLet us know...

Name:___________________________________________________________E-mail:__________________________________________________________Company:________________________________________________________Address:_________________________________________________________City:____________________________________________________________State:__________________________Zip Code:__________________________Home Phone:______________________________________________________Business Phone:___________________________________________________Comments:_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Please mail, e-mail or faxupdated information to:

Tammie EdringtonDepartment of Biological andAgricultural Engineering203 Engineering HallUniversity of ArkansasFayetteville, AR 72701

E-mail: tedring@uark.edu

Fax: 479-575-2846

Ray Avery, ResearchSpecialist, joined theBAE staff on May 19,2003. Ray is a 2003 B.S.graduate from the BAEDepartment. He will beworking with Dr. Brian

Haggard, and his job duties includecalibrating and validating a reservoirwater-quality model and conductingfield work, including bioassays fornutrient limitation determination andwater-quality sampling. Ray will bealso be pursing his masters degree inBiological Engineering.

Betty Martin,Research Specialist,joined the BAE staff onJune 1, 2003. She willbe working with Dr.Rong Murphy manag-

ing the thermal processing and foodsafety lab. As the lab manager shewill be conducting research projectson thermal processing and foodsafety, perform chemical analyses,evaluate pathogenic bacteria in foodproducts, prepare reports andmanuscripts, maintain the thermalprocessing and food safety labora-tory, and perform other tasks such asorganize industry workshops that arerelated to thermal processing.

Robert Morgan, Project/Program Manager/ResearchAssociate, joined the BAEstaff on January 13, 2003.Bob is working with theecological group and is

responsible for designing, supervising,interpreting and communicating field andlaboratory research. He had previouslyworked as a Nonpoint Source PollutionManagement Coordinator for the ArkansasSoil and Water Conservation Commissionin Little Rock. Bob will also be working onhis Ph.D. in Engineering. He and his wife,Sharon, reside in Fayetteville.

John Murdoch, ResearchSpecialist, joined the BAEstaff on July 1, 2003. Johncomes to the BAE Depart-ment from the Food ScienceDepartment Rice Processing

Program. His job responsibilities will bedesigning, specifying, fabricating, testingand maintaining all electronic equipment inthe department. John lives in Wesley andenjoys art, gardening, outdoors, instru-mentation, water quality and music.

Dr. SudhanshuPanda, joined thedepartment as a PostDoctoral ResearchAssociate working withthe ecological faculty

members. Dr. Panda comes to theUniversity of Arkansas from NorthDakota State University Agriculturaland Biosystems Engineering Depart-ment where he completed his Ph.D.degree. He will be responsible forconducting research in the area ofwatershed hydrology, developingdecision support systems for water-shed management, application of GIS,remote sensing and water qualitymodels to develop watershed manage-ment plans, and evaluation of BMPeffectiveness in improving waterquality.

Dr. Xiaole Su, PostDoctoral ResearchAssociate, will beworking with Dr. YanbinLi. Dr. Su will be in-volved in research

projects in biosensors, specificallyimmuno-electrochemical quartz crystalmicrobalance, immuno-SPR andimmuno-impedance biosensors forrapid detection of Salmonellatyphimurium and E. coli O157:H7 infood products. Dr. Su, his wife,Weihong Chen, and son, Yulongreside in Fayetteville.

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Neil B. Ingels Jr., Ph.D.,presented a seminar titled“Rockets to Hearts...ABiomedical EngineeringOdyssey” on April 3, 2003. Dr.Ingels is currently the SeniorStaff Scientist and Head ofthe Laboratory of Cardiovas-cular Physiology and Biophysics at the ResearchInstitute of Palo Alto Medical Foundation in PaloAlto, California, and the Consulting Professor ofCardiothoracic Surgery for Stanford UniversityMedical Center in Stanford, California. Hereceived his B.S.E.E. from the University ofArkansas in 1959, his M.S.E.E. from University ofSanta Clara in 1963 and his Ph.D. in Electrical/Biomedical Engineering from Stanford Universityin 1967. Dr. Ingels will be serving our departmentin the position of Adjunct Faculty member andalso Graduate Faculty status.

Dr. Em Ward has beenchosen to serve as anAdjunct Assistant Professorfor our Department. Dr. Wardis currently working in theElectrical EngineeringDepartment. She received herB.S. degree from Louisiana

Tech University in Biomedical Engineering August1985, M.S. in Electrical Engineering, August 1993,and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, May 2002, fromthe University of Arkansas. Ward had previouslyearned her Doctor of Medicine in December 1989from the University of New Mexico. Her expertise inthe medical field will be of great benefit to thedepartment.

Dr. Simon Ang, Professorof Electrical Engineering, willjoin our department as anAdjunct Professor. Dr. Anghas worked on variousprojects with faculty membersfrom our department and welook forward to having him as

one of our adjuncts. Ang earned his B.S. inElectrical Engineering at the University of Arkan-sas in 1980. He went on to earn his M.S. inElectrical Engineering from Georgia Institute ofTechnology in 1981, Degree of Electrical Engineerfrom Southern Methodist University in 1983 andhis Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from SouthernMethodist University in 1985.

Dr. Ashok Saxena, Regents’ Professor and formerchair of the School of Materials Science andEngineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, hasbeen named dean of the College of Engineering atthe University of Arkansas, effective July 21, 2003.

Saxena, 54, also will serve as distinguishedprofessor of materials science and engineering andas graduate research chair for the college. He willsucceed Dr. Neil M. Schmitt, University professor ofelectrical engineering, who has been serving asinterim dean since July 1, 2002.

In addition, Saxena will become the first UA faculty member to hold anendowed chair funded by the $300 million gift from the Walton FamilyCharitable Support Foundation. As distinguished professor, Saxena also willhold the first of eight endowed graduate research faculty chairs. (Eachresearch chair is funded through earnings from an endowment principal of $3million.) He will have a base salary of $150,000, supplemented with $75,000annually from gift earnings.

Saxena’s scholarly activities over the past 30 years have been in the highlyinterdisciplinary field of mechanical behavior of materials, with primaryemphasis on fracture mechanics. In fact, he is internationally renowned for hiscontributions to the area of time-dependent fracture mechanics and haspioneered developments in this field since the late 1970s. His other researchinterests include creep, fatigue, microstructure-property relationships,composite materials, reliability and risk analysis and life extension of agingstructural components.

Saxena received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the IndianInstitute of Technology and his M.S. (1972) and Ph.D. (1974) in materialsscience and metallurgical engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

His major industrial experience was at the Westinghouse Research andDevelopment Center in Pittsburgh, where from 1974 to 1985 he rose to therank of Fellow Scientist.

He joined the Georgia Tech faculty in 1985 as professor in the School ofMaterials Science and Engineering. From 1991-94 he served as director ofGeorgia Tech’s Composites Education and Research Center. He served aschair of the School of Materials Science and Engineering from 1993 until 2002and was named Regents’ Professor in 2002.

New Engineering Dean &Biomedical Faculty Member Hired

Dr. Mahendra Kavdia will be joining the BAEfaculty on October 15, 2003, as an AssistantProfessor of Biomedical Engineering. He comes toour department from the Center for ComputationalMedicine and Biology at Johns Hopkins Universitywhere he worked as a post doctoral fellow. Dr.Kavdia received his B.Tech in Chemical Engineeringfrom the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi,India, his M.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the

Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India, and his Ph.D. in ChemicalEngineering from Oklahoma State University. His research interests includecomputational modeling of biological systems, biological transport, kineticsand control, bioartificial organs and substitutes, cellular and tissue engineer-ing and biomedical device design.

We look forward to having Dr. Kavdia in the department.

Recent Adjunct Faculty Additions

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Dr. Carl Griffis (left) was presented the John W. White Out-standing Teaching Award, and Dr. Tom Costello (right) waspresented the Alumni Society Outstanding Advising Award for2003. These awards were well deserved and reflect the totaldedication of these two professionals.

Sunny N. Wallace has been awardedthe William Randolph Hearst Ph.D.Fellowship in the amount of $10,000 peryear for three years. By accepting thisfellowship Sunny will serve as theProgram Coordinator of Women inEngineering (WIN). This will includeorganizing departmental WIN func-

tions, choosing Department Mentor Coordinators anddisseminating scholarship and fellowship opportunities for theDepartment Mentor Coordinators. Sunny has also been awardeda Doctoral Academy Fellowship to begin in the Fall 2003 in theamount of $5,000 per year

AAAAAwwwwwararararards and ds and ds and ds and ds and AccomplishmentsAccomplishmentsAccomplishmentsAccomplishmentsAccomplishments

Class of 2003Class of 2003Class of 2003Class of 2003Class of 2003

The department had seven students who completed theirbachelor’s degree. Pictured above are Ray Avery, Chris Long,James Geurtz, Clay McDaniel and Willie Dillahunty. Notpictured are Dylan Carpenter and Mark Orlicek. Below is apicture of the cake that was presented to the graduatingseniors at the Dead Day Luncheon.

Vijay Garg, Biological and Agricul-tural Engineering Ph.D. student, wasawarded the W.R. Thomas Scholar-ship in the College of Engineering.The scholarship carries a stipend of$8,000 per year.

TTTTTeaceaceaceaceaching & hing & hing & hing & hing & AdAdAdAdAdvising vising vising vising vising AAAAAwwwwwararararardsdsdsdsds

Scholarship Recipents

PromotionsPromotionsPromotionsPromotionsPromotions

The department is proud to announce the promotion of fourof our faculty members. Dr. Yanbin Li and Dr. Earl Vories havereceived a promotion from Associate Professor to Professor; Dr.Marty Matlock has received a promotion from AssistantProfessor to Associate Professor; and Dr. Rong Murphy hasreceived a promotion from Research Assistant Professor orResearch Assoicate Professor. Congratulations to all four onpromotions. Your hard work and dedication to the department is

greatly appreciated.

Yanbin Li Earl Vories

Marty Matlock Rong Murphy

Employee of the QuarterTammie Edrington, BAE Secretary II,

was chosen Employee of the Quarter.Tammie received her award at the JulyStaff Senate Meeting. She will also beinvited to attend the University ofArkansas Employee Awards Banquet inOctober and will be considered forEmployee of the Year. Tammie has workedfor the department since August 2001.

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MEET OUR NEWGRADUATE STUDENTS

Dylan Carpenter, B.S. 2003, will be continuing hisstudies under the direction of Dr. Jin-Woo Kim.Dylan is a master’s student working in the area ofFood and Bioprocess Engineering. Dylan is fromWaldenburg, Arkansas.

Xiaole Mao comes to the University of Arkansasfrom China. He received his B.S. degree fromSouthern Yangtze University in Wuxi, China. Xiaolewill be working with Dr. Yanbin Li in the area ofBioprocess Engineering.

Ashish Mishra joined the department for thespring 2003 semester. Ashish will be working withDrs. Sreekala Bajwa and Dennis Gardisser in thearea of Precision Agriculture. He received hisB.Tech degree in Agricultural Engineering fromAllahabad Agricultural Institute in Allahabad,India.

Jayarani Kandaswamy joined the department onJuly 6. Jayarani will be pursuing her master’s degreeunder the direction of Dr. Sreekala Bajwa andworking in the area of Bioimaging. She received herB.S. degree from Bharathidasan University,Tamilnadu, India.

Inoka Kodikara will be pursing her master’sdegree in Cell and Molecular Biology under thedirection of Dr. Jin-Woo Kim and Dr. John Kirby.Inoka comes to Fayetteville from Sri Lanka. Shereceived her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineer-ing from the University of Arkansas, May 2002.

Eylem Mutlu joins the department after completingher M.S. in Environmental Engineering from theUniversity of Missouri-Rolla. Eylem is originally fromAnkara, Turkey. She received her B.S. in EnvironmentalEngineering from Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun,Turkey. She will be working towards completion of herPh.D. with Dr. Indrajeet Chaubey.

From the Head — continued from page 1

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Our faculty, staff, and studentscontinue to receive well-deservedrecognitions for their outstandingcontributions. Four faculty memberswere recently promoted in academicranks, two faculty members wererecognized with Faculty ExcellenceAwards, a staff member was recog-nized as “Employee of the Quarter”for the University and two graduatestudents received prestigiousgraduate scholarships.

We expect another healthyfreshmen class this fall and haveadded six new graduate students inthe department.

Our academy members arecurrently reviewing candidates forthe next class. The ceremony toinduct the new members will be heldon January 8, 2004.

The summer retreat with ourAdvisory Board and Academymembers was held May 29-30 atMount Sequoyah. The primary focusof this retreat was our academicprograms.

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BAEG 2003 SUMMER RETREATThe Biological and Agricultural Engi-

neering Department held its annual SummerRetreat May 29-30 at Mount Sequoyah.Faculty members were present on the firstday to discuss changes for the comingacademic year. Dr. Tom Costello led thediscussion concerning the ABET reviewresults and the department’s plans to makeadjustments to the current ABET plan.Several changes were discussed and someof those will be implemented as soon aspossible. Other topics of discussionincluded defining what a BSBE graduateshould be able to do upon graduation andhow our department can help our studentsmeet those qualifications, space (infrastruc-ture), the addition of new adjunct facultymembers and reviewing the first draft of theproposal for an M.S. degree in BiomedicalEngineering.

An evening social was held at thedining facilities of Mount Sequoyah onMay 29 with faculty, academy, and advisoryboard members and their families. Every-one enjoyed the evening dinner andsocializing.

Academy and Advisory Board memberswere present on Friday, May 30, to reviewthe progress of the department over the lastyear and discuss upcoming events for theAcademy. The dues amount for theacademy members has been increased from$100/year to $150/year for the annualamount and from $1,000 to $1,500 for thelifetime dues. The date was set for the nextinduction ceremony of the academy. It willbe held on Thursday, January 8, 2004 in theStudent Union Ballroom.

BAEG faculty and academy membersmingle during a break from discussions atthe summer retreat.

Dr. Lalit Verma and Dr. NeilSchmitt, College of EngineeringInterim Dean, discuss issuesrelating to the department.

Pictured above are faculty members TomCostello, Carl Griffis, Scott Osborn;Research Specialist, Ken Shelby, andExtension Engineer, Karl VanDevender.

Biological EngineeringFaculty Members

Department HeadDr. Lalit Verma

lverma@uark.edu

ProfessorsDr. Dennis Gardisserdgardisser@uaex.edu

Dr. Carl Griffisclg@uark.edu

Dr. Yanbin Liyanbinli@uark.edu

Dr. Otto Loewerojl@engr.uark.edu

Dr. Earl Voriesedv@uark.edu

Associate ProfessorsDr. Julie Carrier

carrier@uark.edu

Dr. Tom Costellotac@engr.uark.edu

Gary Huitinkghuitink@uaex.edu

Dr. Marty Matlockmmatlock@uark.edu

Dr. Rong Murphyrymurph@uark.edu

Phil Tackerptacker@uaex.edu

Dr. Karl VanDevenderkvan@uaex.edu

Assistant ProfessorsDr. Sreekala Bajwasgbajwa@uark.edu

Dr. Indrajeet Chaubeychaubey@uark.edu

Dr. Jin-Woo Kimjwkim@uark.edu

Dr. Scott Osborngsosborn@uark.edu

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Seniors Win National Design CompetitionThree biological engineering

students at the University of Arkansaswon an international award for design-ing and building a plant growth chamberthat can help NASA scientists study therequirements for growing food crops onMars.

The student team includes WillieDillahunty of Gentry, James Geurtz ofFort Smith and Clay McDaniel ofStuttgart. They placed first for theirsenior design project in the AGCOStudent Design Competition sponsoredby ASAE (the Society of Engineering in Agricultural, Food,and Biological Systems) at its annual meeting in Las Vegas, July27-30, 2003.

The team members split an award of $1,250, and the depart-ment will receive an award plaque and a $300 scholarship fromASAE.

The winning entry, “Growth Chamber for Bio-RegenerativeLife Support,” included the design, fabrication and testing of alow-pressure plant growth chamber. The team collaborated withNASA researchers at Kennedy Space Center on the chamberwhich can simulate plant growth conditions in a Mars green-house that could support long-term space missions. Such agreenhouse can provide food for astronauts and help regener-ate oxygen, remove carbon dioxide and recycle organic wastes.

The team competed against students from across the nation,with the top three entries invited to make oral presentations atthe national meeting to determine the winner. The UA team beatthe Oklahoma State University and Kansas State Universityteams in the final.

“We had a lot of problems to solve for the design,” Dil-lahunty said. “We had to learn what environmental conditionsthe chamber had to simulate and then figure out how toaccomplish it. For example, pressurizing a greenhouse in thethin atmosphere of Mars to the atmospheric pressure of Earth,which is 100 times greater, is cost prohibitive. We had to figure

out a pressure that couldreasonably be providedon Mars that would besufficient for growingplants.

(L to R) Clay McDaniel, James Geurtz andWillie Dillahunty recieve their award checks.

The project was born out of a facultysummer fellowship that Tom Costello,associate professor of biological andagricultural engineering, served withNASA last year.

“During the fellowship, I gatheredinformation on projects NASA wasinterested in,” Costello said. “Part ofNASA’s mission statement is to inspirethe next generation of explorers, and thisproject fits that mission.”

With a grant of about $6,000 from theArkansas Space Grant Consortium,

Dillahunty, Geurtz and McDaniel, with advisors Costello and ScottOsborn, Assistant Professor of Biological and AgriculturalEngineering, visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Theytoured the center and met with John Sager and Ray Wheeler,scientists in NASA’s bioregenerative life support group withwhom Costello worked during his fellowship.

During the meetings the students learned the conditions theirgrowth chamber would have to simulate. They would have todesign and build a vacuum chamber that could lower the atmo-spheric chamber to one-tenth that of Earth, a pressure that couldreasonably be provided in an inflatable greenhouse on Mars. Itwould have to control the composition of gases and provide plantnutrients and external light, Osborn said. In addition, theydesigned and built a heat exchanger to lower the temperature toabout 15 degrees Celsius, a problem the NASA scientists had notsolved.

The completed chamber is an acrylic cylinder 18 inches indiameter with a heat exchanger that uses 200 feet of coiledstainless steel tubing in the bottom. It is connected to equipmentthat controls atmospheric pressure and gases and regulates thetemperature. After some redesigns the team successfully grew atomato plant to prove the chamber worked.

“The student team built a device that enables scientists to runexperiments they could not run before,” Osborn said. “We’ve hadrequests from scientists at NASA and the University of Floridawho want to use it in their research.”

“One of the reasons Willie, James and Clay won the competi-tion was the extra hours they put into this project, far more thanwas necessary for the academic credit they were getting,” Costellosaid. “I attribute that to meeting with the NASA scientists, seeing

their work and what they were trying to do andhow their senior project could contribute to it.I think they picked up some of that NASAenthusiasm.”

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Karl VanDevender attended the National Pork Board’s SwineEducator’s Group Meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, June 19-21. This national group consisting of extension and other adulteducators advises and assists the NPB’s swine educationalefforts. VanDevender provides input in the areas of environmen-tal and regulatory issues.

Karl VanDevender has been awarded a $7,000 grant from theNational Pork Board to coordinate the development of curriculumfor an E Learning course on “Environmental Documentation andRecord Keeping.” He will be working with Extension Swinespecialist in Alabama and Pennsylvania to develop the material.

Dennis Gardisser, Professor and Associate Head of Exten-sion, Biological & Agricultural Engineering was an invitedspeaker at the annual Aerial Agricultural Association of Austra-lia in Adelaide the first week of June. Dennis made threepresentations: 1.) The keynote opening address “Air Ag andHomeland Security in the USA,” 2.) “Adjuvants - AnotherTool?,” and 3.) a two-hour short course on “Spraying Better.”The following week Dennis participated in regional cottonindustry association meetings addressing the utilization ofagricultural aviation and chemical application accuracy in generalto produce cotton in Australia. Dennis presented a three hourseminar at each of the following full day sessions: St. George,QLD; Narrabri, QLD; and Goondiwindi, QLD. Dennis holds anAustralian private pilot's license, so he was able to fly to theseand various other venues utilizing a borrowed private aircraft.

Gary Huitink participated in the Association of EquipmentManufacturers Product Safety Seminar in St. Louis, Mo. onJanuary 21-23. The engineers from most agricultural equipmentmanufacturing companies and some professors from biologicaland agricultural engineering departments conferred on Europeansafety standards, safety innovations for agriculture and imple-menting safe practices by “designing out” hazards, educatingclientele using various approaches and regulatory means andlegal action. Risk assessment, safety standards and other topicswere covered in depth.

Sreekala Bajwa, Julie Carrier and Gary Huitink didpreliminary work on an $8,000 grant from the Cotton Foundationfor improving gin waste handling. Gin waste was sampled fromtwo Arkansas cotton gins during the past season and evaluated

Several biological and agricultural engineers have contributedto the latest Corn Production Handbook, MP437, published anddistributed by the University of Arkansas Cooperative ExtensionService. Dennis Gardisser, Gary Huitink, Phil Tacker and EarlVories made contributions to topics on cultural practices,drainage and irrigation, grain storage and aflatoxin in corn, cornharvesting, on-farm storage and drying, identifying hazards andpreventing accidents and renewable energy. The increasedacreage and increased interest in more corn production inArkansas makes this a valuable, current reference for corngrowers, especially those with limited experience with the watermanagement, equipment, safer management in agriculturalenvirons and other corn-related issues.

in the laboratory at various stages of deterioration up to 14months of ambient outdoor storage. The project will continuethroughout the upcoming cotton harvesting, ginning and ginwaste storage season.

Douglas Kratz, support specialist-forages, CES; KennethShelby; Gary Huitink and Karl VanDevender teamed togetherwith Cooperative Extension Agents from several Ark. counties toconduct the annual 4-H O’Rama Tractor Driving Activity on theUniversity of Arkansas campus at Fayetteville on July 24. JaredAttwood, 15, of Rison, Ark. was this year’s 4-H youth winner. Hewill represent Arkansas at the National Engineering Competitionin Indianapolis, Ind., in September. This year’s Tractor DrivingActivity included more participants, and they were more competi-tive than those who participated in the past few years.

A committee of Cooperative Extension specialists chaired byGary Huitink assembled and distributed Edition 1 of a Universityof Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service Disaster ResponseHandbook. This reference for communication, media and countyagents includes more than 100 pages and more than 25 publica-tions and internet references on disaster assistance contacts,drought, earthquake, agricultural biosecurity, floods, tornadoes,ice storms, intense cold, snow storms, etc. The committee wascomprised of more than 15 Extension personnel with expertise in avariety of topics, who compiled the first edition. They met on July14 to begin making additions, revisions, modifications andimprovements to the present entries in order to publish Edition 2.The information is currently available at the following web site:http://www.uaex.edu/disaster.

www.baeg.engr.uark.eduEngineering for Life

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSASDIVISION OF AGRICULTURECooperative Extension Service

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Sreekala Bajwa, Gary Huitink,Mitch Crow, County ExtensionAgent-Staff Chair in St. FrancisCounty, and William Baker, Professorof Agriculture, Arkansas StateUniversity, have a precision agricul-ture project underway that is fundedby the National Cotton Council.This study includes mapping of thesoils with various tools, including acurrent VERIS model. Other factorsinclude soil tillage (subsoiling) ofcotton. Mapping of the cotton plantdevelopment is underway, and thetreatments will soon be harvestedand the cotton yields mapped by acotton picker monitor.

Gary Huitink, along with a teamof extension agricultural engineers,design engineers from a half-dozengin equipment manufacturingcompanies and ginning researchersfrom across the cotton-producingregions of the U.S. conducted anational cotton ginning school at theUSDA Cotton Ginning Laboratory atStoneville, Miss. Ginners fromVirginia to Kansas and Californiaattended the equipment fundamen-tals/management training June 19.Four concurrent classes wereconducted, with Gary Huitinkcovering topics on gin safety andcotton gin waste utilization andhandling.

The Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University ofArkansas has two Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships and four Doctoral AcademyFellowships as well as graduate research assistantships available in several researchareas in biological engineering.

FELLOWSHIPS:

Two Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships offer a stipend of $30,000 per year plustuition for up to four years.

Four Doctoral Academy Fellowships offer a stipend of $18,700 per year plustuition for up to four years.

RESEARCH PROJECTS:

· Bioimaging for Monitoring Food Safety and Quality· Bioinformatics· Biomass Energy· Biomedical Engineering· Bioprocess Engineering· Biosensors for Detection of Biological Agents· Decision Support System Development for Natural Resource Management· Ecological Engineering· Extraction of Dietary Supplements· Food Thermal Processing and Food Safety· Micro/Nanobiotechnology· Nonpoint Source Pollution Control and Modeling· Precision Agriculture· Reducing the Occurrence of Bacterial Resistance to Medical Antibiotics

in Environment· Remote Sensing for Bioresources Monitoring and Management· Water Management for Agricultural Production

REQUIREMENTS:

Distinguished Doctoral Fellows should have a master’s GPA of 3.85 or B.S. GPA3.65 or higher, a GRE verbal plus quantitative score at least 1300 and a GRE writingscore of 5.5 or 6.0.

Doctoral Academy Fellows should have a master’s GPA of 3.65 or B.S. GPA 3.5 orhigher, a GRE verbal plus quantitative score of at least 1200 and a GRE writing scoreof 5.0 or higher.

TO APPLY:

Send a letter of application, a resume and transcripts of all college work and threereference letters to:

Dr. Lalit Verma, Head and ProfessorDepartment of Biological and Agricultural Engineering203 Engineering HallUniversity of ArkansasFayetteville, AR 72701Phone: 479-575-2351 Fax: 479-575-2846E-mail: lverma@uark.edu, Website: www.baeg.engr.uark.edu

Distinguished Doctoral Fellowshipsand

Doctoral Academy Fellowships

Extension - continued from page 8

The State Section Meeting will beheld on Friday, October 3, 2003, atExtensions State Office in Little Rock.

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Biological EngineeringStudent ClubPRESIDENT

Drake McGruderGermantown,TN

dmmcgru@uark.edu

VICE PRESIDENTAndrea LudwigStuttgart, AR

aludwig@uark.edu

TREASURERTyler Gipson

Broken Arrow, OKtgipson@uark.edu

FACULTY ADVISERDr. Scott Osborn

gsosborn@uark.edu

Marty Matlock gets caught in the chips and dip!

Jalene Ramsey, left, and Virginia Glass,right, pose for a picture with graduatestudent Debabrata Sahoo.

Several students and faculty members enjoy theconversation and the Dead Day Luncheon.

This spring was a busy time for thedepartment. The student club contin-ued its sales of salsas, jams, jellies, andsteak sauces. The money will go to helpdefer costs of club activities.

The students competed in theannual Engine Week festivities. Whileour department did not take away tophonors this year, the students had agood time participating in the events.Our club finished second overall.

Dead Day Luncheon for the springsemester was held on May 2. Thegraduating seniors were recognized bythe department, and Dr. Tom Costellopresented each of them with theirBAEG award. Elections were also heldfor the officers of the club for thecoming year. Drake McGruder waselected president, Andrea Ludwig, vicepresident, and Tyler Gipson treasurer.There will be a runoff election for thesecretary position when the studentsreturn in the fall. Dr. Scott Osborn willtake over as faculty advisor.

EdibEdibEdibEdibEdible Balance Contest le Balance Contest le Balance Contest le Balance Contest le Balance Contest WWWWWinnerinnerinnerinnerinnersssssDr. Carl Griffis’ BENG 1022 class competed in a team project. Each team was to design, construct and test a balance capable

of determining the mass of objects from 1 to 100 grams. Then the teams competed to see which balance was most accurate andmost aesthetically pleasing. As is the case in most design problems, there were some constraints that influenced their designdecisions.

The balance had to be constructed entirely from edible materials. In order to leave no doubts as to whether the balance wasentirely edible, each team had to consume the balance as soon as the contest was completed. Spectators such as other stu-dents, faculty and department staff were allowed to help consume the device, so the students were instructed to choosematerials of construction that were gastronomically pleasing. The teams were also limited to spending no more than $100 inconstructing their balances.

Pictured below are the contest winners.

Section 1 - The Copernicus’

Leslie Mooney, Colt McClain and Sean Holden

Section 2 - The Lavoisiers

Jennifer Raible, Dylan Ballard, Andy Riesterand Waleed Naseem

Most Innovative Design

Nova-Dawn Fant, Gabriel Vigh and Aaron Hilborn

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Highlights and Presentations — continued from page 1

YYYYYes! I wes! I wes! I wes! I wes! I would likould likould likould likould like to contribe to contribe to contribe to contribe to contribute to the scute to the scute to the scute to the scute to the scholarholarholarholarholarship fund!ship fund!ship fund!ship fund!ship fund!Please accept my contribution to the following scholarship. My check for $______________ is enclosed.

Billy Bryan Scholarship Fund ______ Joel T. Walker Memorial Scholarship Fund ______Biological and Agricultural Engineering General Scholarship Fund ______

NAME: ________________________________________________________________ADDRESS: _______________________________________________________________CITY: ____________________________________________________________________STATE: __________________ ZIP: __________________ PHONE:___________________E-MAIL ADDRESS:__________________________________________________________

Remit Payment To: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering203 Engineering HallUniversity of ArkansasFayetteville, AR 72701

Indrajeet Chaubey and Bob Morgan from the Biological andAgricultural Engineering Department and Tommy Daniel from theDepartment of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences attended ameeting in Miami, Okla., on February 18, 2003, to discuss waterquality concerns in the Grand Lake watershed. This meeting wasattended by scientists and policy makers from Oklahoma,Missouri, and Kansas.

Sreekala Bajwa presented “Remote Sensing and PrecisionAgriculture: Where are we? What is the future?” on February 16,2003 at the First Arkansas Remote Sensing Symposium—Precision Agriculture and Forestry Application in Little Rock.

Indrajeet Chaubey and Marty Matlock participated in NationalScience Foundation Graduate Education review panel. March 4-8, 2003. The meeting was held in Washington, D.C.

Julie Carrier served as a member of the Interdisciplinary Panelfor Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ofCanada, February 2003.

Tom Costello and Scott Osborn took five students on a trip toNASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida onFebruary 6-9, 2003. They visited the Advanced Life Support LifeSciences Laboratory. They also toured behind the scenes atEpcot Center – The Land. Students attending were: WillieDillahunty, James Geurtz, Clay McDaniel, Mark Orlicek, ChrisLong and Johnny Mason. Dillahunty, Geurtz and McDanielconsulted with NASA engineers regarding their senior designproject, a growth chamber for growing plants at low atmosphericpressure (to simulate a greenhouse on Mars).

Jin-Woo Kim, Ajay Malshe and Steve Tung gave a technicalpresentation, “Bio-Inspired MEMS: A Novel MicrofluidicsSystem Actuated by Biological Cell Motors” at the 2003 Instituteof Biological Engineering (IBE) Annual Meeting in Athens,Georgia.

Marty Matlock was invited to make a presentation at the TMDLProgram – Challenges and Opportunities Texas A&M UniversitySeminar Series; Soil, Crop, and Environmental Sciences Depart-ment; College Station, Texas, on April 2, 2003.

Indrajeet Chaubey and Brian Haggard attended the NationalAnimal Manure Management Center meeting in Kansas City,Mo., on May 15-16, 2003.

Brian Haggard presented a poster titled “Phosphorus sources inthe Illinois River Basin: Effect of Chemical Amendments onSediment-Phosphorus Interactions” at the annual meeting of theNorth American Benthological Society in Athens, Georgia, May27-31. Coauthors were Sujit Ekka, Marty Matlock and IndrajeetChaubey.

The following items were presented at the Spring SpecialtyConference of the American Water Resources Association May12-14 in Kansas City, Mo. Brian Haggard: oral presentationtitled “Nutrient and Estradiol Loss in Runoff Water From VariousPoultry Litters.” Kati White: oral presentation titled “Periphyticchlorophyll a response to triclosan exposure at the White River,Northwest Arkansas;” Departmental coauthors included: BrianHaggard, Marty Matlock and Jin-Woo Kim. Brian Haggard:poster presentation titled “Phosphorus concentrations and loadsin the Illinois River Basin, 1997-2001;” Coauthored with hydrolo-gists from the U.S. Geological Survey. Sujit Ekka: posterpresentation titled “Impact of wastewater treatment plants instreams of the Illinois River Basin;” Departmental coauthorsincluded: Brian Haggard, Marty Matlock and Indrajeet Chaubey.Kati White: poster presentation titled “Changes in water qualityat Buffalo National River, 1991-2001;” Departmental coauthorsincluded: Brian Haggard and Indrajeet Chaubey. DebabrataSahoo: poster presentation titled “Stream nutrient retention andlimitation in Moores Creek, Northwest Arkansas;” Departmentalcoauthors included: Indrajeet Chaubey, Brian Haggard andMarty Matlock. Vijay Garg: poster presentation titled “Effect ofsuspended sediment distribution on spectral reflectance;”Departmental coauthors included: Sreekala Bajwa, IndrajeetChaubey and Brian Haggard.

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PAIDPERMIT NO. 278

FAYETTEVILLE, AR

Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering203 Engineering HallUniversity of ArkansasFayetteville, Arkansas 72701-1201

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Department of Biological andAgricultural Engineering

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Dept. of Biological and AgriculturalEngineering ....... 479-575-2351

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The University of Arkansas is anequal opportunity/affirmative action institution.

Calendar of EventsBAE Lifeline

OCTOBER

TBA Fall Outing 3 State Section ASAE Meeting, Little Rock11 Homecoming - Auburn

NOVEMBER

26-28 Fall Break27-28 Thanksgiving Holiday (UA closed)

DECEMBER

10 Dead Day11-17 Final Exams24-31 Christmas Holiday (UA closed)