From eating a poisonous fly agaric—the iconic red-with-white spots toadstool—as a child and getting his stomach pumped to later making clay versions of the same mushroom on a “Smurfs”-themed Mardi Gras float, Marshall Porterfield has gone from picking mushrooms off his pizza to growing them in the lab.

The Industrial Microbial Biotechnology study abroad program was created to offer students more insight into the many ways that microbes are used in industry. Germany is a choice location based on its history in food fermentation and expertise in anaerobic digestion of agricultural residues.

The purpose of the annual report is to maintain public focus on the issue of agricultural confined space injuries and fatalities, aid in the development of evidence-based training, and offer resources and direction to policymakers and engineering organizations in developing improved workplace regulations and design standards. New findings reported no fewer than 55 cases involving agricultural confined spaces, with 29 fatal and 26 nonfatal cases. This represents a 33.7% decrease over the 83 cases documented in 2022.

As a boy, Porterfield was influenced by viewing the Apollo rocket launches, an opportunity that came with being part of a military family stationed at a naval base nearby NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Science fiction and television also sparked his fascination with space. The original Star Trek series hooked him as a young child, and later, during his undergraduate studies, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation depicting hydroponics in space inspired Porterfield to his calling.

As a trained agricultural engineer, Hoerr says her creative problem solving was cultivated at Purdue and has served her well in her quest to be a part of the solution. "I'm a woman of many passions, but the linkage to food and hunger goes back to my idealistic views of the world from when I was a freshman at Purdue,” Hoerr said. “One of the main reasons I chose agricultural engineering is because I wanted to feed the world.”

The Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture Center (IoT4Ag), now entering its fifth year, is paving the way for affordable technological innovations that help producers make informed management decisions by collecting data across farms in a low-power, long-range approach with the Solar-Powered Remote IoT4Ag Network Gateway (SPRING) project.

Humankind has been drying food to preserve it since prehistoric times. Food dehydration removes the moisture from food to inhibit the growth of bacteria and mold in order to increase its shelf life. Food typically is dehydrated by using heated air in an electric or gas-fired oven; drying in a solar dryer, which concentrates the heat; employing a desiccant; leaving a product to dry in the open air; or sun drying in the open air.

"The goal has been to estimate what risks might be present in fresh produce operations from nearby animal operations or other wildlife," Verma said.

Halis Simsek, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, led three of the studies.

GRYFN - Control the Data, Control the Field