The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) has ranked among the best graduate programs in the country in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, released today.
The UF/IFAS ABE graduate program ranked No. 6 among agricultural and biological engineering graduate programs. The department is housed within UF/IFAS, and students can earn graduate degrees through the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences or the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.
Graduate degrees include Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy, Applied Science Master’s and Ph.D. and Master of Engineering.
“Our students solve complex problems, not just the problems the agricultural and natural resources sectors are facing today. They’re working to build the tools that will solve the biological and ecological problems of tomorrow,” said Greg Kiker, professor and chair of UF/IFAS ABE.
UF/IFAS ABE was created with the principals of developing, teaching and applying engineering principles in the agricultural industry and beyond – both to improve and sustain natural and managed systems locally and globally.
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The department is over 100 years old and has transformed from the early industrialization of farming to a world where data science, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, biocomplexity and artificial intelligence (AI) are common strategies in farming and food systems.
One of the most enduring and impactful research project spearheaded by ABE was the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), which is now one of the most popular crop modeling systems in the world, providing agricultural production information for users in more than 190 countries.
The project began in the 1980s but has continued to this day, where the current system model has expanded to include a more robust overview of changing elements in agriculture, such as soil data, crop genetics and resilient management practices.
Building on their long-term experience in biological systems, ABE faculty have expanded to explore infrastructure resilience, making airports more energy-efficient and shock-resistant to move passengers around the world. In the Strategic Partnerships for Enhancing Airport Resilience (SPEAR), a group of ABE researchers worked on a grant funded by the National Science Foundation to map all the logistics of an airport – everything from security checks to baggage flows to machine maintenance – and created a system that could help predict how problems like a heat wave or a cyber-attack could affect those systems.
Other work ABE students have done includes modeling crops for “life support” on longer space flights, sensors for precision farming, and drones for faster data collection.
“Whether it’s sending out drones to protect citrus trees or using UF’s HiPerGator supercomputer to analyze animal behavior, UF/IFAS ABE students are on the cutting edge of agricultural and biological engineering education, Extension, and research,” Kiker said.
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