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A NOTE FROM BERNIE ENGEL |
Although I know many of you as colleagues, I’m pleased to
introduce myself to you here in a new capacity, as associate dean of research and
graduate education for the College of Agriculture.
During my tenure as head of the Department of Agricultural and
Biological Engineering, impressive developments in plant sciences occurred in
our college. I’m familiar with the outcomes from collaborative research between
ABE faculty and members of the Center for Plant Biology; but with the broader
view of this new position, I can appreciate the scope and contributions of many
more individual and team programs and projects.
With my new responsibilities comes a host of new learning
opportunities. Having joined the Purdue faculty more than three decades ago,
this is tremendously exciting, if a bit mind-boggling. I look forward to
working with you to advance the college’s mission. Working together and across
disciplines, our research, academic training and extension in the plant
sciences will continue to have enormous impact in Indiana and around the world.
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All the best, |
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Bernie Engel, PhD
Associate Dean for Research
and Graduate Education
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FAST FACTS: BERNARD A.
ENGEL
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- Raised on a 1,200-acre farm in Illinois
- Bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois; doctoral degree, Agricultural Engineering, Purdue University
- Joined the Purdue faculty in 1988
- Appointed ABE department head in 2005. Under his leadership ABE rose to the No. 1 ranking for its undergraduate program eight consecutive years and for its graduate programs 10 of the last 11 years.
- Global expert on development and application of hydrologic/water quality models and environmental decision support systems
- Led planning efforts for renovation and construction of the new $80 million ABE building (December 2020 completion)
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ACADEMICS
News about faculty achievement and updates on academic programs |
RESEARCH
Discover the latest research findings and technological developments
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DATA MANAGEMENT
Explore Smarter Ag® and find updates for data management
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Connect and hear about recent plant sciences innovations
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ACADEMICS
NEWS ABOUT FACULTY ACHIEVEMENT AND UPDATES ON ACADEMIC PROGRAMS |
OF ACADEMIC NOTE
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Center for Plant Biology member Jianxin Ma
, Agronomy, has been named a
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Center for Plant Biology member Zhixiang Chen, Botany and Plant Pathology, and Jian-Kang Zhu, Horticulture and Landscape Architecture,
have been recognized among Highly Cited Researchers who produce papers that
rank in the top 1 percent by number of citations for field and year in the Web
of Science.
A paper in Science
by Yun Zhou, Botany and Plant Pathology, and colleagues provides new insight into the way plants
control stem cell activity during growth. Zhou is among the new hires in plant science.
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SEED GRANTS
ADVANCE BASIC PLANT BIOLOGY
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In the second year of the Center for Plant Biology seed grant program, CPB faculty selected five faculty teams to receive
approximately $50,000 each for varied projects aimed at advancing basic plant
biology. The grants are intended
to enable researchers to identify core experiments that add to their data in
the short term and improve their position to secure federal grants. Learn
more about this year’s recipients, how a team from last year put its grant to
work and how the program fosters collaboration among researchers.
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CENTER FOR PLANT BIOLOGY
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A new Center for Plant Biology
Assistantships program provides graduate students in CPB labs an eight-month
stipend plus financial support for travel to national
scientific meetings to present their research findings. The
students hone their grant-writing skills in the process of applying for
the assistantship and describing the research it would support. Eleven of this
year’s 26 applicants received assistantships. “Although
all of the students had written very good proposals, those selected stood out
because they had already made excellent progress on their PhD research and had
assembled outstanding, clearly written proposals that could be accomplished
within the timeframe of the assistantships,” said CPB Director Clint Chapple.
The Center for Plant
Biology admissions committee has completed its review of applications to the Plant
Biology training group of PULSe this year. Committee members were excited to
host 12 potential graduate students February 14-15 and will interview an
additional five international applicants by SKYPE.
The University has recognized a new
student organization formed by CPB graduate students and postdocs. Members of
the Center for Plant Biology Trainees Association have elected officers,
selected a faculty advisor and started planning how the group will promote and
organize professional development, team building and social activities. The
association’s executive board also will serve as liaison between CPB faculty
and CPB trainees for academic, professional and social expectations.
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MASI OFFERS LAB, COMMUNICATION, NETWORKING EXPERIENCES
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The 2019 Molecular Agriculture Summer Institute (MASI) Undergraduate Research Fellowship applications are currently open and due by February 28. Students accepted into the program will spend 40 hours a week from May 20 to August 2 as assistants in the labs of their faculty research mentors; complete a Science Communication Lunch Series hosted by agricultural sciences education and communications faculty to help them report their research experience to varied audiences; attend lunches and tours related to molecular agriculture and our Purdue Ag Centers; and present a research poster at an industry site as well as this year’s Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference.
Support for undergraduate research comes from both
Agricultural Research and Graduate Education (ARGE) and the Office of Academic
Programs (OAP). ARGE funds most
Agriculture Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) students, some of
whom will
be working in related areas.
The OAP, faculty mentors and the mentors’ home departments each
pay one-third of MASI students' summer stipends. OAP’s College of Agriculture Transformational
Experiences (CATE) funds additional programmatic costs and workshops thanks to
the Jim and Neta Hicks Endowment for Leadership in Agriculture.
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RESEARCH
DISCOVER THE LATEST RESEARCH FINDINGS AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS
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CONTROLLED
ENVIRONMENT PHENOTYPING FACILITY (CEPF)
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A new hyperspectral imaging
mechanism has been installed in the CEPF. The new mechanism has significantly
improved image quality without loss of throughput. We are in the process of
optimizing the operation of the new system.
Research activity in the CEPF has
steadily increased, with experiments now booked through July 2019. Three new
experiments are underway. Cankui Zhang, Agronomy, is conducting a study of garlic reaction to
drought stress. Mohsen Mohammadi, Agronomy, is doing phenotyping in wheat, focusing on
shoot reaction to drought treatment. John Couture, Entomology, is studying nitrogen reaction in corn.
In March, researchers will
be working with switchgrass, sorghum, kale and basil. In July, they will run
experiments to quantify the yield and growth of sorghum with a particular
genetic trait that increases tolerance against a specific fungus.
Delivery of the new CT root scanner
system is currently scheduled for mid-May. It will then require two to four
weeks for installation, integration and tuning. At least for the first couple
of weeks during installation, the CEPF will need to turn off the power to the
whole system. However, planners don’t anticipate that the facility will close
once they get into the integration phase, since they will need to power up the
system to do the integration.
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NEW GANTRY SYSTEM AT ACRE
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Jian Jin, Agricultural & Biological Engineering, is installing a high temporal resolution gantry system in the field at the Agronomy Center for Research and Education (ACRE). He will leverage the gantry to collect data and to develop algorithms that facilitate the translation of data collected from the controlled environment to those from the field. The gantry at ACRE is the first of its kind in the U.S. in terms of its sensor configuration and algorithms and intended use. Construction is underway, with completion expected before the next growing season. As one of Purdue’s key faculty members in plant phenotyping, Jin has been instrumental in establishing Purdue’s phenotyping systems both in the controlled environment and in the field.
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ICSC FEATURED EQUIPMENT: PACKET/STAKE PRINTER
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PACKET/STAKE PRINTER
ICSC’s packet/stake printer is capable of reliable, high-speed printing on seed packets as well as field stakes. Printed information comes from a user-supplied .csv file. The printer also can print barcodes on packets and field stakes. |
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IDEAS FESTIVAL FEATURES AGRICULTURE INNOVATOR
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| Caleb Harper, principal investigator and director of the Open Agriculture initiative at the MIT Media Lab Purdue, will discuss “What IF Food was Digital?” at an 150th Ideas Festival event February 26 at 6:30 pm in Fowler Hall. Harper leads a diverse group of engineers, architects and scientists in exploring and developing future food systems. Based on his work using computers and newly designed infrastructure to look at food production in urban areas, he and PBS correspondent Miles O’Brien will discuss how a personal food computer might transform the way we eat. The event is free and open to the public. Footage of Harper at the Controlled Environment Phenotyping Facility will be included in his on-campus activities for a news show. |
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3MT COMPETITORS WILL PRESENT TO PHENOMICS ADVISORY BOARD
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Graduate students are invited to present their research that incorporates high-throughput or high-resolution plant phenotyping in a 3MT® competition to select faculty and industry executives, research scientists and producers who comprise the Phenomics Advisory Board. The competition, sponsored by the Indiana Soybean Alliance, will take place February 21, 11 am-noon in Burton Morgan 121. Students who place first and second will receive $500 and $250, respectively, plus free time in the Controlled Environmental Phenotyping Facility and Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center. Register by contacting René Celeste in the Institute for Plant Sciences, rceleste@purdue.edu.
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WEBSITE SHOWS PURDUE EXTENSION UAV PROGRAM AT WORK
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| An updated website offers an overview of Purdue Extension’s unmanned aerial vehicles program. UAVs are a highly effective, cost-efficient tool to monitor soil and crop conditions, so Extension personnel are learning how to help farmers and agricultural professionals more easily analyze and apply data from them. Visitors to the site can view case studies that show the many uses of UAVs — in animal agriculture, crops, marketing, natural resources, structures and turf — and find contact information for the 17 Agriculture and Natural Resources Educators who fly them over crop fields across Indiana. |
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DATA MANAGEMENT
EXPLORE SMARTER AG® AND FIND LATEST UPDATES FOR DATA MANAGEMENT |
PROGRESS ON CONSTRUCTION OF DATA MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE
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“Proof of concept” is a key step in establishing the data pipeline infrastructure for phenotyping data analysis and data management. Proof-of-concept projects have been completed for:
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- Establishing edge and batch computing capabilities for both RGB and hyperspectral image analysis: The data pipeline is capable of automatically processing acquired images either on the edge on the server (in the batch mode), and then automatically transferring all the processed data to HubZero for consumption.
- Zegami visualization: Zegami is a tool to facilitate quick data visualization and data mining.
- Automated data transfer: Data transfer and visualization is running beautifully.
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The proof of concept is meant to demonstrate that the HPE stack + Hudoop/PISTL big data concept could work for phenotyping data management. To fully leverage this capability, more work is needed to establish the final data pipeline, which also includes a database. Once that occurs, Yang Yang, yang1527@purdue.edu will be the contact for researchers to put this to use.
The CEPF has developed a set of machine vision algorithms to determine key corn (or sorghum) traits such as number of leaves, leaf angle, stem height, and stem diameter. The example on the left shows that the algorithm is able to establish the length and angle of each individual leaf. The example on the right shows the algorithm is able to analyze the characteristics — size, shape, color, etc. — of each individual leaf. With all the leaves identified, researchers would be able to go one step further for stem character analysis. |
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POSTDOC HIRED TO SUPPORT IMAGE ANALYSIS
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| Plant Sciences postdoc Augusto Souza arrived February 11 from Iowa State University. The position is important to building on algorithms for user modules that accommodate different experiments in CEPF and ICSC. Augusto also will help with image analysis support as well as deep learning with phenotyping. |
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CONNECT AND HEAR ABOUT RECENT PLANT SCIENCES INNOVATIONS |
AG-CELERATOR INVESTS IN TWO STARTUPS
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Heliponix LLC, which developed a GROPOD™ fully automatic growing device and technology, and Karyosoft, which created easy-to-use software solutions that simplify genome data analytics for microbiome professionals, have received a combined $100,000 in funding through the plant science innovation fund Ag-Celerator™. |
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SPRING 2019 COHORT OF ENTREPRENEURS FORMING
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| Applications are in for the sixth cohort of entrepreneurs. Purdue students, faculty, alumni and other Purdue affiliates are competing for funding. Innovations can be anything related to plant sciences including, but not limited to, innovations advancing crop traits, generating higher yields, using big data to improve farm management, new uses of plants, precision agriculture and advanced breeding techniques. |
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STUDENT INNOVATORS ADVANCE PROTOTYPES THROUGH SUMMER INTERNSHIP
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The ASPIRE (Ag Soy Product Innovation Realization & Entrepreneurship) internship allows successful competitors of the Student Soybean Product Innovation Competition to advance their soy-based prototypes toward commercialization. The internship is an 11-week, full-time program where students work closely with the Purdue Foundry and participate in research and customer-delivery activities, with the end goal of commercializing their product and/or forming a startup company.
“We created ASPIRE to bridge the gap between a good idea and possible commercialization,” says program manager Micky Creech. "When students come out of the competition, they're excited. They have good products, but they don't know where to go from there. This internship helps students take their products from conception through completion, which potential employers recognize as extremely valuable experience."
Four ASPIRE interns from last year's Purdue Student Soybean Innovation Competition — Susan Hubbard, Samantha Tinney, Patrick Woodson and Luping (Sherry) Xu — worked alongside their faculty advisors. The students’ products included a soy-based product to visually show when medicine has expired, a pathogen-specific soy-based food spray, a substitute for propolis (bee glue) and a tackifier used for hydroseeding applications.
On Aug. 24, the ASPIRE students and their teams competed for Ag-Celerator funding by pitching to an investment panel. Overall, both programs prepared students for future presentations and pitches, and provided them with the knowledge and experience to solve market-related problems.
Applications are being accepted now through April 5 for this year’s ASPIRE Internship. Send questions about the Soybean Innovation Competition or ASPIRE to Micky Creech at mcreech@purdue.edu. |
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  © 2019 Purdue University An Equal Access/Equal Opportunity University |
Nancy Alexander, Editor, Purdue Agricultural Communications
Erin Robinson, Senior Communications Specialist, Purdue Agricultural Communications
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