BAE celebrates 75 years of biological and agricultural engineering innovation
Current and former students and faculty from around the country came together on May 13 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at North Carolina State University.
Events were held all over campus to commemorate the anniversary, beginning with golf at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course on Centennial Campus and ending with a reception and banquet at the McKimmon Center that evening.
There was also an afternoon picnic and tours of Weaver Labs, Centennial Campus, and the Lake Wheeler Field Labs. Robert Goo, US EPA Smart Growth Team Leader, delivered a keynote address at the McKimmon Center.
The department dates to 1935, when the bachelor’s degree program in what was then agricultural engineering was established in the Department of Agronomy. But 22 years before that, NC State had employed two professional agricultural engineers to work on drainage issues associated with agriculture and road building, particularly in eastern North Carolina.
Over time, advancements in agriculture shifted from a focus on mechanization towards development and refinement of practices and processes to better manage land and water resources. The department was the first agricultural engineering department in the nation to notice this shift towards biological systems and changed its name to biological and agricultural engineering in 1965.
The department currently has about 325 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 30 faculty members. It is consistently ranked in the top 10 of biological and agricultural engineering departments nationwide.
The department is administratively located in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with its teaching program jointly administered with the College of Engineering.
