July 2023

In This Month's Issue:

• From the Executive Director
• 2023 Annual Meeting Wraps Up, 2024 Planning Begins
• AE50 Nominations Open August 1 with New Submission Process
• YPC Marks 20 Years with Retrospective Video
• Licensure Webinar, Resources Offered
• Conference Organizers Honored
• Get Involved in Technical Communities
• Moneyball Next Book Club Pick
• 2023 Blue Ribbon Winners Announced
• Standards Development Awards Presented
• Artificial Intelligence: Friend of Foe? 
• Optimizing Committee Meetings at AIM
• Annual Meeting Papers Posted
• Constructed Wetlands is Focus of Special Collection
• Publish Your AIM Paper at Discounted Rate
• 2nd Evapotranspiration Symposium: Registration Open
• African Agrifoods Conference Open for Abstracts, Exhibitors
• In Memoriam — Roger Brook, Joe Collins, James Graham, Bill Stout

From the Executive Director

The Omaha Annual International Meeting is now in the history books and a hearty thank you is in order to Past President Maury Salz, who chaired the local organizing committee, as well as the entire committee and the crew of hard-working student volunteers who guided all the moving parts making this AIM so memorable! It was an action-packed week, and we’ll be un-packing it and communicating about it for months. The Young Professionals Community celebrated its 20^th anniversary during AIM’s entirety and produced a catchy video commemorating the milestone, which you can watch below. The YPC and the ASABE Foundation jointly held a wonderful fundraising dinner event. After a tasty barbeque and a thought-provoking speaker, we squared off in teams for trivia and fundraising benefiting both groups. In the end, the team donating the most money “won” the trivia contest. Travis Tsunemori generously matched the total amount collected with his own donation!
 
The awards luncheon and especially the remarks by now Past President Keith Tinsey and incoming President Dana Porter were outstanding.  Keith’s “I wouldn’t be me without ASABE” campaign resonated deeply with the membership and I predict people will be sharing for years to come their stories about how ASABE shaped them. Dana built on this and on the incredibly powerful message by opening keynote Chris Field, on disrupting for good, to share about her theme of "communities." The Society is composed of a “community of communities” and this provides a home where everyone can engage and grow to their fullest. She also unveiled the new logos and taglines for both ASABE and the Foundation, which is a big deal and is being introduced in phases.  
 
Past President Bill Harriott (1983–1984) participated extensively in the Omaha AIM and is one of the sharpest and most active nonagenarians I know!  He shared with me the following observations: “The diversity in age and gender and color [at AIM] was beautiful!” “Realizing that at some time in my life I actually had personal conversations with nearly all of the people for whom the awards are named, including J. Brownlee Davison, but did not know any of the [current] award recipients, made me laugh out loud. I am extremely privileged.” Stay young Bill!     

Darrin J. Drollinger
Executive Director

AE50 Nominations Open August 1 with New Submission Process

Licensure Webinar, Resources Offered 

Conference Organizers Honored 

Get Involved in Technical Communities 

Updates to ASABE's committee rosters are underway, making this a great time to explore the technical committees and get involved in work that will expand your professional network, augment your professional development, and provide opportunities for you to contribute to your profession.

Head over to the ASABE website to find an abridged, publicly available list of committees involved with standards development. Contact the committee chair or ASABE staff to sign on.

Our Technical Communities
Here's a rundown of our technical communities. Zero in on your own interest area and get involved.

ASE—Applied Science and Engineering
EOPD—Education, Outreach, and Professional Development
ES—Energy Systems
ESH—Ergonomics, Safety and Health
ITSC—Information Technology, Sensors, and Control Systems
MS—Machinery Systems
NRES—Natural Resources and Environmental Systems
PAFS—Plant, Animal, and Facility Systems
PRS—Processing Systems

Moneyball Next Book Club Pick

Join the ASABE Book Club as we take on our next selection, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis. 

To participate, read the book or listen to the audiobook, then join us September 20 via Zoom to exchange insights. Registration is required. 

The ASABE Book Club is supported by the ASABE Initiative Fund and sponsored by the ASABE Young Professionals Community.

Participants will be eligible for a $25 Amazon credit. Qualifying, registered members will receive credit after participating in the Zoom book discussion on September 20, 2023. 

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2023 Blue Ribbon Winners Announced 

• Charles Swanson, Guy Fipps, “Propeller Flow Meter Installation Videos,” Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service
• Daniela Jones, “Data-Driven Decisions for Food and Energy,” North Carolina State University
• Paul Jones, William E. Field, Matthew Jordan, Will Jackson, Kyle Bates, “Ned Stoller: Agricultural Assistive Technology,” Purdue University/National AgrAbility Project, MJ Multimedia
• Mahmoud Sharara, Laura Riddle, “Innovation in Swine Manure Management,” North Carolina State University

• Shawn Ehlers, Ed Sheldon, “PREPclips- Purdue Rural Emergency Preparedness Program Educational Video Clips,” Purdue University

• Paul Jones, William E. Field, Amy Masson, Richard Fox, “National AgrAbility Project,” Purdue University/National AgrAbility Project, SUMY Designs

• Simerjeet Virk, Ravi Meena, “Pulse Width Modulation Technology for Agricultural Sprayers,” University of Georgia
• Bibek Acharya, Vivek Sharma, Charles Barrett, Sudeep Singh Sidhu, Lincoln Zotarelli, Michael D. Dukes, “Methods to Quantify In-Field Nutrient Leaching,” University of Florida

• Stacia L. Davis Conger, Jeffrey S. Beasley, Jay McCurdy, “Irrigation BMPs for Golf Courses in Louisiana and Mississippi,” LSU AgCenter, Mississippi State University
• Paul Jones, William E. Field, Dawn Minns, Cheryl Tevis, Jon Smith, “AgrAbility: 30 Years of Impact,” Purdue University/National AgrAbility Project, Uppercase Design, Ag Perspectives, Inc 
• S. Dee Jepsen, Forrest Lang, Jane Wright, Annie Steel, Susie Young, Tony Carrel, “Ready, Set, … Mow!” The Ohio State University, Purdue University

• Ehsan Ghane, “Choice of Pipe Material Affects Drainage Performance and Cost,” Michigan State University
• Erdal Ozkan, “Effective Pesticide Application in Orchards and Vineyard," The Ohio State University

• Leslie Johnson, Rick Koelsch, Amy Schmidt, Larry Howard, Aaron Nygren, Agustin Olivo, Amber Patterson, Michael Sindelar, Todd Whitney, Agnes Kurtzhal, Chryseis Modderman, Blythe McAfee, Tiffany O’Neill, Andy Scholting, “Interactive Nutrient Management Decision-Making Exercise,” University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Minnesota, Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, Nutrient Advisors Processing Systems

Standards Development Awards Presented

Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?

What in the world are those pigs doing on the cover of the July-August issue of Resource! We’ve all heard of artificial intelligence, can you guess what prompt was used to generate this image? Read the issue and decide for yourself whether artificial intelligence is a super-power or a super-villain.

Also in this issue:

• Take a closer look at this year's three Davidson Prize winners.
• The 2022-2023 Annual Report provides insight into the workings of the Society the past year.
• Enjoy another "ASABE and me" story, this one highlighting ASABE member Barbara Sturm.

Optimizing Committee Meetings at AIM

Over the past several years, the ASABE Standards and Technical Council (STC) has promoted ways to optimize technical committee participation at the ASABE Annual International Meeting. Some of the key focus areas have been:

• Creation of core committee meeting schedules that were developed to minimize conflicts for members who participate in multiple committees.
• Promotion and facilitation of virtual committee meetings throughout the year, outside of the Annual Meeting.
• Promote use of consent agendas. A consent agenda groups routine meeting discussion points into a single agenda item. In so doing, the grouped items can be approved in one action, rather than through the filing of multiple motions. A template has been created and is available on the ASABE website for member use.

At the Omaha meeting, the STC proposed and approved an additional idea: For member-led committees, the default meeting duration in the core schedule will be one hour. Committee leaders can request additional time, but the requests need to be submitted by the end of December for AIM 2024. The reasons for this emphasis include:

• Potential new members want to hear technical discussions. Streamlining housekeeping items, or better yet, handling them outside of the in-person meeting, maximizes time for such discussions.
• Reduced meeting times allows attendees additional time to network and attend technical sessions, tours, and competitions.
• Reduced meeting times helps to minimize early morning and late afternoon/evening committee meetings.

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Annual Meeting Papers Posted

The papers submitted to us before the annual meeting have been posted online. You may still submit your paper to Jill Straub.


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Constructed Wetlands is Focus of Special Collection

Manuscripts are due by December 31, 2023, for Constructed Wetlands. This collection welcomes papers from a wide range of topics related to the design, effectiveness and challenges of constructed wetlands, including floating treatment wetlands and their impact on the local ecosystem.


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Publish Your AIM Paper at Discounted Rate

Further develop your non-refereed 2023 annual meeting presentation into a high-quality, peer-reviewed manuscript.

Submit your paper for publication in ASABE journals and receive a page charge discount of $100 or 10%, if over 10 pages for the final layout.

You must be registered for the annual meeting, present your work at the AIM, and submit your manuscript to Scholar One by October 1, 2023. Note that all manuscripts must go through our high-quality review process to be published in the ASABE journals.


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2nd Global Evapotranspiration Symposium

Advances, Challenges, and Future Needs in Measurements, Modeling, and Applications

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AMAA Conference, Summit & Technology Show

Imagining African Agrifood Systems — Looking Forward

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In Memoriam — Roger Brook, Joe Collins, James Graham, Bill Stout

Roger Brook

Roger Charles Brook, age 71, of East Lansing, MI, passed away in his home on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. Born in 1952, Brook grew up on a dairy farm in Bath Township, MI. With some time at Rensselaer Polytechnic University, he earned a bachelor of science in 1973 and a PhD in agricultural engineering in 1977 from Michigan State University. After graduation, he began his career on the faculty of Purdue University before, a year later, moving to Haslett, MI, and joining the faculty of his alma mater as a professor of agricultural engineering and extension specialist. His work took him on sabbaticals to Silsoe, England, and later to Moscow, ID, and on numerous trips, one of the more memorable being multiple weeks in India. He built a professional life of research and training students, becoming a widely respected leader in his field and seeing his professional tree flourish.

Retiring from Michigan State in 2002, Brook proceeded to earn a master’s degree in information technology and established a consulting business that allowed him to work from home. He often said that what he missed about going into the office was the community coffee pot and those who surrounded it. His interests as a consultant ran from web design to helping organize the Fruit and Vegetable Expo in Grand Rapids. 

A memorial service was held July 18. 

Joe E. Collins

Full obituary


James Graham

James A. Graham, age 95, t of Wheaton, IL, formerly of Moline, IL, passed away on Thursday, July 20. He was born April 1, 1928, in Howard County, IN, and raised on a farm. He received both a bachelor’s (1951) and master’s (1953) degrees in agricultural engineering from Purdue University and went on to enjoy a remarkable career with John Deere, where he served in many positions as an engineer, including director of reliability. He retired from the Technical Center in 1987 after 35 years of service.

Graham had a passion for gardening and was known for his exceptional skills in cultivating roses. He was an amateur astronomer and enjoyed viewing the stars and planets through his telescope. He enjoyed being outside, woodworking, and sharing his passions with others. He was an active and valued member of the Rotary Club in Moline for many years, where he was committed to serving others while enjoying fellowship among other professionals and community leaders. He also served several years on the City of Moline Planning Commission. Graham was an active member at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Moline, where he served the board of elders, the education committee, and the building committee in the late 1960s. 

A visitation will be held at St. John Lutheran Church, 410 N. Cross, Wheaton, IL 60187, on Saturday, August 5, at 10:00 a.m., followed by a memorial service at 11:00 a.m. Memorial gifts may be directed to Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 4107 21st Ave, Moline, IL 61265.

Graham was a 72-year member of ASABE.

Full obituary

Bill Stout

ASABE Fellow Bill Stout passed away recently at the age of 91.

Stout was born on a wheat and cattle farm in Nebraska in 1932. After receiving a BS in agricultural engineering from the University of Nebraska, in 1954, he earned both master's and doctoral degrees in the same from Michigan State University, in 1955 and 1959, respectively. He was a faculty member at Michigan State University from 1955 to 1981, chairing the agricultural engineering department for five years. He then joined Texas A&M University, where he is credited with expanding the biological and agricultural engineering program beyond the technical aspects of engineering to focus on management and a number of social and ethical issues. He authored or edited eight books on mechanization and energy management in agriculture and published more than 140 papers in technical and popular journals. 

Over the course of his industrious career, Stout became deeply involved in international applications. He was a farm power and machinery specialist for FAO in Rome, director of a 3-year USAID study of agricultural mechanization in Equatorial Africa, campus director of a USAID agricultural research project in Mali, and key consultant to the UNDP/ICAR–sponsored energy center at the Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, India. He also had short-term assignments in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Latin America. Beginning in 2003, he spent much time as a visiting professor at several agricultural universities in China.

Stout was elected an ASABE Fellow in 1980. He was also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR) and served CIGR as its 1999–2000 president. Among his numerous awards and accolades were the McCormick-Case Gold Medal and the Kishida award from ASABE and the Max Eyth Medal from the German Society of Agricultural Engineering. In 2011, his work in developing the once-over mechanical cucumber harvester was designated an ASABE historic site at MSU.

Stout was a 68-year member of ASABE. 

Full obituary


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