BRAE Magazine 2022 by CalPolyBRAE

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department

Spring 2022

ASM Seniors compete to fabricate a one-of-a-kind mobile cattle shade for an industry partner.

Page 15

A Message from the department Head

My favorite part of spring 2022 is seeing students back at work on the ramp. Today, students were finishing senior design projects; painting replacement boards for an upcoming tractor pull event; making auction items for the upcoming Agricultural Engineering Society banquet; conducting a disinfection experiment; and growing spinach, kelp, micro algae, oysters and catfish. That does not include the multitude of water-related projects.

This issue of our magazine also highlights one of the first post-COVID-19 field trips our students experienced. Typically, we take our students on five field trips per year so they can meet industry partners and participate in outdoor activities that are so valuable to students’ career exploration. We also had our first face-to-face career fair since the pandemic. Working in the field is such an important part of students’ education; so thank you to our industry partners that attended this event to hire students for summer internships and career positions.

We rely on your contributions of time, talent and treasures to the department. State funds coming into Cal Poly do not cover all the costs to provide the hands-on education our students expect. The department uses donations to fund bus trips and specialized class supplies and support student projects. Do not forget that another way to give that directly benefits our students is our Earn by Doing program. Earn by Doing allows the department to hire students throughout the school year to assist in the shops and with research projects. Please consider sponsoring a student in this program.

Thank you to the parents and supporters that have brought us caring individuals who will be lifelong learners.

Peter Livingston, paliving@calpoly.edu

Editor in Chief Payton Paschoal, fourth-year agricultural communications

Assistant Editor Maddie Tellesen, firstyear agricultural communications

STUDENT CONTRIBUTORS

Photographer: Wine and Waste Water, ASM Senior Project, AES Kaitlyn Glakeler, first-year agricultural systems management

Writer: Scaling Up Lauren Schaap, first-year agricultural communications

Writer: EPIC Grace Alonso, second-year agricultural communications

Writer: A Promising Alternative Zelda Fogle, fourth-year English

MustangsForever

AUSTIN JONES ASM ’17

I currently work for E & J Gallo Winery as a grower relations representative. I collaborate with farmers all over the Central Valley, advising best practices, promoting the planting of wine grapes and guiding integration of new technologies into the vineyard. The years since graduation have been the best of my life. I’ve begun my career, beat cancer after a bout with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, spent a wine grape harvest in New Zealand working as a cellar hand, moved back to my hometown and got engaged! Being in my hometown of Hilmar, California, allows me to help my family on the farm’s small almond orchard. Recently I’ve become a hay farmer on the side, assisting my fiancé to build her direct-to-consumer Hereford beef business. I’ve picked up some hobbies along the way, like wine making and homebrewing. My education in the BioResurce and Agricultural Engineering Department helped me build one of the most heavyduty, high-tech garage brewing systems you’ll find. The critical and technical thinking skills I developed as an ASM student gives me an edge in my career and other interests, and the Learn by Doing continues every day.

-Austin

MEGAN CAIRD ASM ’20

After graduating Cal Poly, I went to Woodland, California, to work as the production coordinator at Dunnigan Hills Hulling & Shelling from July 2020 to November 2021. Dunnigan Hills Hulling & Shelling is an almond huller and sheller. Since almonds are a seasonal crop, the facility only ran from the beginning of August to about the end of November. We ran a day crew and a night crew that each worked 12hour days. My responsibilities consisted of coordinating with the grower, the processor (such as Blue Diamond) and dispatchers when we were processing their product and when it was done. Additionally, I coordinated with our office, the loading crew, and the huller and sheller crew on whose product I was planning on processing and when. I decided to move back to Santa Barbara, California, in December 2021 to work for my family business, Por La Mar Nursery. I have been there for about three months, but it has always been a part of my life. We grow hundreds of different blooming and foliage potted plants year-round. My grandparents, Ron and Pat Caird, started the business in 1972; my dad, Brian Caird, and my aunt, Erin Caird, followed in their footsteps and still manage the operation. Although it is still new, I am excited to be part of my family’s business and continue my grandparents’ legacy. The biggest impact the BRAE Department had on me was the amazing professors and their passion for teaching. I learned so much from them because they truly cared about the subject and their students being successful.

-Megan

Mustangs

MIKAELA JENSEN ASM ’20

Mikaela Jensen (Agricultural Systems Management, ’20) continues to demonstrate her dedication to success in her career and everyday tasks.

After graduation, Jensen moved to Dalhart, Texas, to work for Five Rivers Cattle Feeding — an opportunity she found after interning for Five Rivers one summer during her time as a student. While she enjoyed this job, she wanted to get back into engineering, so she recently moved to Amarillo, Texas, to work at civil engineering firm Brandt Engineers. Her new position provides her with a great foundation for her career in the future. At Brandt Engineers, her roles change, allowing her to gain a variety of experiences regardless of whether she is in the office, out in the field at a concrete pour or working on cost estimates and water studies.

Jensen’s passion for engineering started when she decided to switch majors her first year at Cal Poly. After talking to BioResource and Agricultural Engineering faculty members, Jensen knew that agriculture systems management was a perfect fit.

“I originally applied under a different major, and after talking to a faculty member, I realized that ASM was the perfect cross between agricultural engineering with a business aspect, which is what sold it for me.”

At Cal Poly, Jensen became involved in clubs, including the Agricultural Engineering Society (AES), Tractor Pull and Young Cattlemen’s Club. She left a legacy as a leader in the AES program, where she served as communications chair and vice president.

As a student in the BRAE Department, she completed her senior project, a fully autonomous feed sweeper for the Cal Poly Dairy. “The BRAE Department definitely set me up for success,” Jensen said.

She said the skills that she developed in BRAE assist her in big projects and setting up reports at Brandt Engineers.

Air Ag from the

A first-of-its-kind drone surveying class introduces students to a new way to map land.

Article by AnnMarie Cornejo

Last spring, clustered in a dirt parking lot, students stood with their eyes cast to the sky as a steady buzzing sound emanated from above. A small drone, not much bigger than the palm of an outstretched hand, hovered overhead.

The students were part of a droneassisted surveying course — the first of its kind offered by the BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department.

The burgeoning use of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to map land is changing the way that land surveying is done — making the process of creating maps more efficient. The department purchased six minidrones and two larger ones for students to gain handson experience.

Lecturer Lewis Soloff, who has worked for years as a land surveyor, said that what would have once taken several days to do can now be done in a matter of minutes using the advanced

technology.

Soloff has students flying the smallest of the drones on their second day of class — learning how to navigate the controls from their smartphones.

“I want the students to approach this emergent technology with confidence,” Soloff said. “I encourage them to be bold but to follow the safety protocols.”

Students learn aviation and safety laws, how to operate both large and small drones, and how to become certified to fly drones for commercial purposes by obtaining the Remote Pilot Certificate from the FAA.

Soloff said students are likely to use the technology beyond mapping for other practical uses, such as quickly inspecting large areas of farmland to survey plant health, or in forestry to study drought impacts, or to distinguish what types of trees are grouped in particular areas.

“Surveying a 10-acre site with modern ground instruments might take two days with a two-person crew,” said Soloff. “Now, a drone can fly for eight minutes and capture the same imagery. The increase in productivity is almost unbelievable, and of all the possible applications of drones, most people in the field consider that agriculture stands to gain the most from this technology.”

The examples are endless. Infrared technology can be used to make a map in a single afternoon to determine where problem areas are, such as an aphid infestation. A 30-acre site can quickly be surveyed to see where water flows, or doesn’t, and determine problem areas and find resolutions. “There are huge cost and ecological benefits,” Soloff said.

“There is a whole world out there for drone applications,” said Agustina Mogetta, a fourth-year environmental management and protection major who accepted a job with the city of San Francisco’s environmental outreach programs. “While I may not use drones in my job, it is good to know the interest of the stakeholders I will be working with.”

Wine & Waste Water

The College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences calls on the BRAE Department to assist with the wastewater treatment facility for the new winery.

Construction of the new JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture was completed in fall 2021 with wine making, teaching and event meeting spaces. An important part of the winery is its wastewater treatment plant, which is designed to handle the high biological oxygen demand (BOD) wastewater coming out of a winery. The wastewater collection system for the plant uses only floor drains in the winery, making it safe to use as a teaching aid. The goal of the plant is to produce water clean enough to reuse on campus. The treatment plant, designed and built by Cloacina, uses the

company’s MEMPAC membrane bioreactor package. The key words “bioreactor” and “membrane” refer to the plant’s living, breathing series of chambers and membrane filtration system to polish the water. “The final product is clean enough to reuse on campus,” said Peter Livingston, head of the BioResource and Agricultural Engineering Department.

Wastewater from the floor drains empty into a pump out at the head end of the plant. A lift station pumps the liquid and solids to a solid holding chamber at the head end of the plant. The

solids are screened out when the water is pumped into the primary treatment chamber that is filled with a matrix of plastic that provides space for bacteria to grow. The secondary treatment chamber is another living area where anaerobic and aerobic bacteria reduce the nitrogen loading in the water. This process is known as activated sludge. The final treatment chamber is the membrane filter, where the wastewater flows — mostly by gravity — through membranes with very small openings, which filter out bacteria, viruses and fungi. The final treatment is disinfection using ultraviolet light.

The plant was designed to allow students to experience all the chambers. The plant is safe for students because there is no human waste in the water coming into the plant, only winebased wash water. The plant’s control system allows faculty and students to log in and keep track of dissolved oxygen, pH and other parameters throughout the plant. Cameras could be added in the future if a class wanted real-time monitoring of the system without having to go over to the plant. We are excited to have this living, breathing, Learn by Doing tool for our students.

Scan this QR code to check out a video about the JUSTIN AND J. LOHR CENTER FOR WINE AND VITICULTURE featuring the BRAE engineered waste water facility!

scaling up

Article by Lauren Schaap

IIn an increasingly competitive world, growers look for ways to save time and money, and Assistant Professor Mohammad Sadek and bioresource and agricultural engineering student Alexa Coons are working on a project to minimize waste and maximize the efficiency of herb harvest. Sadek conducts research and teaches several classes on automation and agricultural machinery. Coons has worked on many research projects in the department and jumped at the opportunity to help innovate herb harvesting. Her mechanical background working with microcomputers makes Coons a core member of

The project is focused on improving efficiency by adding a scale to the harvester. Currently, baskets of approximately 10 pounds are filled with harvested herbs to be sold to a client. Without a scale, field employees fill the baskets, manually take them off, weigh them separately, then place them back on the harvester if they are light. A scale attached to the harvester would eliminate removing the baskets to weigh them.

After testing multiple designs, Sadek and Coons found a postal scale shows the most promise. The square scale is wirelessly connected to a

display that is mounted onto the side of the harvester. Once a basket hits the weight limit, it beeps to alert the field employees. The weight is also shown on the display.

When the field employees harvest and deliver the herbs to the client, they put all the baskets on a pallet. In the past, each basket holding the herbs had a different weight because densities vary depending on the crop. Without the scale, employees guess the weight based on what they see. The scale increases uniformity in the basket weights, which is highly cost efficient.

“Additionally, growers do not risk losing products from pulling the baskets off and putting them back on,” Sadek said. “It’s a much simpler system with a harvester and integrated scale. It saves steps and increases efficiency.

Even small incremental savings of time and effort can add up and make a significant difference.”

Meet Alexa

Alexa Coons has taken full advantage of the endless Learn by Doing opportunities the BRAE Department offers. Her involvement primarily focuses on mechanical design and metal fabrication.

Outside the department, Coons enjoys spending time with her horse, Neander. “Despite usually wearing cowboy boots at work, I ride English style and participate in show jumping competitions throughout the year,” Coons said. “Horses, school and work all keep me busy, but I am always excited to participate!”

Sadek added, “The department could not be prouder of her involvement in the college.”

The BRAE Department’s Irrigation, Training and Research Center is on the edge of innovation when it comes to protecting Earth’s most valuable resource, water.

Irrigation Training and Research Center

The Irrigation Training and Research Center employs students and recent graduates to complete research, including transformational projects that attend to new regulations.

Based on the Central Coast, the ITRC has been assisting local farmers and ranchers conform to Senate Bill 88, which focuses more on the usage of water diverted from natural rivers and waterways.

ITRC staff has begun evaluating current systems in accordance with standards set by Senate Bill 88. For one irrigation district in Nevada, the ITRC has been designing new and improved ranch and farm turnouts to be built along its main canal for better flow measurement throughout the entire canal. The ITRC designed a greatly improved intersection of three large canals and has been preparing the designs for more construction for the same district.

Closer to home, the ITRC has been heavily involved in flow measurement testing with Hach Velocity Meters for an irrigation district located in the Central Valley. The ITRC is in the process of determining the feasibility of using Hach meters to measure the velocity of water flowing through turnout gates.

Major changes are coming to the ITRC as it bids farewell to project manager and BRAE lecturer Franklin Gaudi and welcome Guy W. Bates, a familiar face. Gaudi’s students have expressed their grief over losing “the coolest water guy around,” but they agreed that Bates is the perfect candidate to fill such big shoes.

Article by Grace Alonso

The BioResource and Agricultural Engineering (BRAE) Department was invited to assist in coordinating the summer 2021 Engineering Possibilities in College Camp (EPIC). Typically, junior high and high school students live in Cal Poly dorms for one week while attending in- person laboratories and working on various projects related to engineering.

Faced with the challengesongoing of the pandemic,globalthe 2021 event was held virtually. However, Cal Poly students, university professionals and engineering specialists wanted participants to receive a hands-on learning experience, so Professor Sara Kuwahara designed a watering add-on kit for each student attending EPIC. The kits equipped participants with the necessary tools to design, construct and test their own engineering project.

a pump, moisture sensor, temperature sensor, relay, tubing and a screwdriver. Using the watering kit and a microcontroller kit, students were able to program and create automated watering machines. The machine was able to detect when the soil moisture level dropped, which would then trigger the machine to water the plant.

Two EPIC sessions took place over five days, one with middle

The water add-on kits included

had one hour each day dedicated to socializing and fun activities, providing them an opportunity to make new friends. The virtual activities included home scavenger hunts, a talent show, Kahoot games and spirit competitions.

schoolers and the other with high school students. The students each spent two hours programming with Kuwahara and two teacher’s assistants over Zoom. Another hour was allocated for questions and advice from the teacher’s assistants.

In addition, the students

“Despite the challenges of COVID-19, the program was a huge success and generated a lot of excitement for the following Kuwaharayear,” said.

This summer, EPIC will be held in allowingperson, students to learn about engineering in solar energy. The camp will include fun competitions for students to compete with their solar- powered ovens and learn new industry innovations. “Being able to host EPIC is a great opportunity for the BRAE program, as it can introduce students to a potential academic career at Cal Poly and give them a taste of the Learn by Doing motto,” Kuwahara said.

Scan this QR code to check out a video about the IMTA System and its researchers!

“Oysters.

I never would have thought that for my senior project in college I would be working with oysters. This project has been so amazing to be able to collaborate with other students outside my major. It’s always so fun to see how each person’s skillset fits into a greater goal that we can all work toward. We have all been working so hard, and we could not have done it without everyone’s help. It is all worth it in the end when we get to see how far we have come,”

-Will Upham, fifth-year marine science

When walking down the Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Department ramp, it is difficult to pass by the glow of the Bioresource Lab. Bright lights growing different varieties of algae is just the beginning of the department’s Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture system (IMTA).

IMTA systems traditionally are located on shore to draw seawater in through the system; however, BRAE faculty members Sara Kuwahara and Greg Schwartz assembled a team to bring the IMTA system inland and indoors.

“Even though they are not on the pier, they [students] can get trained and go work anywhere in aquaculture,” Schwartz said.

This system is a combination of algae, Pacific oysters and fish using the same resources. A by-product of animal aquaculture is an abundance of nitrogen and ammonia, which forces farmers to build expensive filtration systems or dump it into the environment. Releasing these waste nutrients into the environment can make toxin-producing algae blooms that create oxygendepletion zones. By integrating the species’ habitat, the system becomes sustainable and waste-free. The vertical setup includes three stacked tanks: the top with algae, the middle with oysters and the bottom with fish. The same water flows down the tanks and is then pumped up to the top tank. The algae—

“Sometimes you grow what you want, sometimes you grow what grows well.”

- Sara Kuwahara

which is toxic to the oysters — filters the soluble waste from the fish. Then the oysters filter the solid waste from the fish, so the fish habitat is always clean and healthy. This sustainable system allows each species to reproduce and be harvested by aquaculture farmers.

With a background in growing microalgae, Kuwahara leads the plant-side of the operation. The project began in 2021 with a single tank and algae donated by San Jose Moss Landing. Four students have since joined the project, in addition to other intermediate projects being built students in BRAE 128: Careers in BioResource and Agricultural Engineering. These additional projects include a cooling system and an overhead light structure. “At this point in the project, we are learning about the little things, like how often to clean the [algae] tank and how much the oysters eat,” said second-year BRAE student Sarah Marks. She also explained that developing a system like this is difficult because “all of the organisms have to be happy at one temperature, one salinity and one concentration.”

Fellow student Julia Ahern added, “It’s kind of like a matching game.”

Although a relatively new concept, IMTA has been profitable on a large scale. In addition to being self-sustainable, farmers can harvest multiple saltwater species off the coast.

“It is unique because it is indoors,” Kuwahara said. “Looking long term, the ocean temperature will change. This project allows us to figure out if we can do this on land.”

Growing a variety of species presents opportunities for sub-projects. Kuwahara plans to use the macroalgae grown in the IMTA system for medical innovations. Macroalgae produces alginate, an essential component in wound dressings for severe burns.

Schwartz has a long-term goal of developing a portable IMTA system so students can learn about marine aquaculture wherever they are in the state.

The IMTA project has attracted students from other departments, including fifth-year marine science student Will Upham. He discovered the opportunity to partner with the BRAE Department by applying his passion for ocean life. Upham’s interest has sparked future collaboration between the marine science program and BRAE.

The IMTA project has unlimited

stepping up to the plate

Landscape irrigation students travel to Southern California to tour some of the most unique botanical gardens in the country.

Most people probably don’t know that the landscaping around Dodger Stadium is a registered botanical garden. In March 2022, Chaz Perea, landscape manager at Dodger Stadium, introduced students to 200 acres of paved parking and the gardens surrounding the stadium. Following a litany of philosophy about managing a botanical garden, the turf manager of Dodger Stadium led the students onto the infield and gave them an opportunity to run the bases. The class also got to see the substrate under the turf, the irrigation system for the turf area and the control room’s many safeguards, including those that ensure the sprinklers don’t come on.

respect for all. Perea noted that his landscaping team has been in place a long time because of the mutual respect among co-workers, which starts with their “office.” Every tool and spare part in the storage building used by the crew was in its place. Priceless works of art hung on every blank wall — many were paintings and collages done by children from the local

else would you get to walk on the Dodger’s field and run the bases?” he asked.

After the stadium tour, students traveled to Balboa Park to tour 1,200 acres of land in the middle of San Diego. The parcel is divided into three distinct areas: active recreation, education and passive education. Students toured part of the education section, including the San Diego Zoo, museums and international-themed shopping areas. The park was developed in the early 1900s in anticipation of a World’s Fair. The fair did not materialize, but the city had the wisdom to formalize the space and dedicate it to the citizens of San Diego.

The final stop on the field trip was Hunter Industries research and development, training, manufacturing and testing facility located north of San Diego. The building houses many engineering experts, including Cal Poly graduates who are working on the next generation of irrigation controllers, sprinkler nozzles and valves. The training facilities are used to train equipment dealers and employees.

“The opportunity provided by Hunter Industries to our students in unmatched when it comes to hands on learning of landscape irrigation.”

-Franklin Gaudi, associate professor of BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

In addition to the tour, Perea shared key career advice with the students, including the philosophy of working hard and being a team player, as well as having passion, good communication skills and

school. The crew created its own Shangri-La above the building, which included statues and examples of many of the plants found in the stadium area. This space provides a tranquil meeting area for Perea and his crew.

Cal Poly irrigation Professor Franklin Gaudi accompanied the students on the field trip. “When

While touring students learned about the equipment and maintenance, including the 21 parts in Hunter’s two-inch-long matched precipitation rotator nozzles. These sprinkler heads begin as rods of brass, stainless steel and plastic beads. The metal is machined into very exact parts. All scraps are recycled, and the plastic beads are molded into sprinkler bodies and a multitude of tiny parts. Extrusion molds are

kept fresh by in-house machinists making new molds. Robots assemble all the parts. Every batch is tested using a microscope to measure tolerances.

The sprinkler bodies are periodically tested for burst pressures. A subset of finished sprinklers are set out to irrigate an indoor grid of catch cans to verify they meet the tough Hunter distribution uniformity goals. In the rare chance they fail, they are recycled and made into new sprinklers.

Irrigation is not limited to farming. Students in the landscape irrigation class had the unique opportunity to participate in a two-day field trip touring Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Balboa Park in San Diego and Hunter Industries in San Marcos.

BRAE AND THE cheeseburger

A focus of Cal Poly’s BioResource and Agricultural Engineering (BRAE) Department is helping farmers solve the growing labor shortage in California while also working to reduce water usage in agriculture.

Engineers are not making these advances on their own. Most major changes in growing, irrigating, harvesting and processing of agricultural products are possible because of plant breeding support from BRAE’s colleagues in plant sciences.

The labor involved in growing lettuce was also reduced by starting it out as a plug in a greenhouse. Plant tapes use high-density growing trays that result in very efficient and fast transplanting systems that reduce labor by 80%. Exact plant spacing allows the use of robotic, vision- based tillage systems, saving around 60% to 80% of hand-hoe labor.

Methane is a by-product of dairies. The BRAE Department has a focus on energy recovery that harnesses methane and uses it to create electricity and heat to process milk which is used to make cheese. The dairy industry, already highly mechanized, stands to benefit from advances in agricultural engineering industry, which has been involved in developing products that improve efficiency, such as robotic milking machines. BRAE has also impacted – and automated – the cattle industry. For example, scales installed at the feed bunks were created to track the animals’ rate of gain and feed consumption. Students also developed a machine that pushes up the feed, giving the cows constant access to it. They are currently working to make it autonomous.

Peter Livingston

The main ingredients for the buns are wheat flour, water and yeast. We teach a class on precision farming that utilizes a self-driving Kubota side-by-side utility vehicle that is equipped with vegetation health sensors and a self-leveling spray boom. Students experience technology that is readily available. The combine pictured at right is in self-driving mode, and the driver is controlling the adjacent tractor pulling the wheat bin. This class teaches agricultural systems management and gives BRAE students the skills to work in fermentation facilities growing yeast.

Commercial growth of tomatoes for canning started with UC Davis’ plant breeding and its development of the tomato harvester back in the 1960s. The growing time was accelerated when the industry turned to planting plugs that were germinated in greenhouses. The plant tape system could further reduce the transplant labor requirements and allow for machine vision-based weeding.

Many of the onions used on commercial hamburgers start out as dried products supplied by the spice industry. The onions were bred for low-water content, and the process for harvesting and processing those onions now integrates vision-based sorting systems in the field. Vision-based sorting systems have the capacity to automatically grade and sort some crops, thereby saving time, labor and money.

ASM SeniorRe-imaginedProject

AAgricultural managementsystems (ASM) students combine engineeringagricultural and business, leaving Cal Poly with the technical and business relations skills necessary to confidently enter the workforce. Recently ASM seniors were tested on that premise when tasked with a sustainability-focused project to develop mobile infrastructure for a cattle ranch in Creston, California. Creston Enterprise approached the BioResource and Agricultural Engineering (BRAE) Department looking for aspiring engineers to create a holistic and intensive grazing rotation system for cattle, sheep and goats. The livestock will be moved between paddocks and will incorporate sustainable agricultural practices.

After reimagining the ASM senior project structure, advisor and Assistant Professor Garrett Forbes reminded students that the capstone project is their culminating experience. This project is supposed to draw on all of the classes that ASM students have taken throughout their career. The project began with each group planning the full development and design and getting the layout approved by Professor G.W. Bates and Forbes during fall quarter 2021.

Fabrication started winter quarter, and the project was completed the following spring.

Senior ASM students were divided into teams to design and fabricate a mobile shade structure that could hold water troughs for small and

large livestock, provide shade and hold storage for mineral blocks.

About 35 students formed into five groups, each providing specific requirements for the design. These specifications included a portable structure with easy access, 750 square feet of shade for the livestock, water storage for a minimum of 250 gallons and space between large and small animal water troughs with biosecurity measures.

“

The most important thing that BRAE has taught me is the hands-on Learn by Doing. You put what you learn to use, to understandthroughly it all.

“ - Jared Schaner, fifth-year agricultural systems management major

“The hardest constraint was designing for the small animal and large animal water troughs,” said fifth- year ASM student Jared Schaner. “Since most of the cattle are longhorns, the troughs have to be low enough for the goats and sheep to get in but not low enough that the equipment will drag on the ground when we move it. We put a

lot of thought into the water troughs and the separation of waters.”

The ASM senior capstone project allowed each student to demonstrate their unique Learn by Doing skillets learned throughout their years at Cal Poly.

Scan this QR code to check out a video about the ASM Senior Project!

BRAE Senior Project

The BRAE Senior Project took course material in statics, dynamics, and strength of materials and directly applied it to building a hydraulically actuated crane to lift 2000 pounds.

Student teams designed, specified parts, fabricated, and tested their cranes on four different tests designed by other students.

a promising alternative

Article by Zelda Fogle

Industry partnerships provide consistent inspiration for the BRAE Department. The idea for a contactless device that measures tree diameters initially started as a senior project when a nursery approached the department in need of aspiring engineers.

The project began before the COVID-19 pandemic, which inevitably halted its completion. However, the project has since transformed into a research project between Assistant Professor Matt Haberland and Dominic Chmiel, a third-year mechanical engineering major from Temecula, California. Using a 3D printer, a towel rod, solar panels, an Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS, and two googly eyes, Chmiel constructed “Theo” the robot prototype in

a few short months during the summer of 2021.

Having previously worked with Haberland, Chmiel seized the opportunity to work alongside him in developing a robot that measures tree caliper sizes.

The current process for measuring tree diameters includes a team of people using a gauge to manually measure the base of the trees. This method leaves them susceptible to possible diseases and injury due to physical contact. However, the robot uses a line laser and camera to measure the diameter, providing a contactless way to measure the trees and reduce the risk of possible damage and disease.

The robot prototype is powered

We want to make this GPS less expensive to improve broader accuracy.

- Matt Haberland, assistant professor of BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

“ “

by solar panels, allowing it to charge during the day and pass through the rows at night. It’s guided entirely by RTK GPS, a highly accurate GPS system commonly used in agriculture. The robot’s internal GPS system communicates with a second component that’s fixed within the region. This RTK GPS system is more precise than a standard GPS. The prototype built by Haberland and Chmiel is significantly cheaper than others on the market, making their prototype a promising alternative for a more costeffective RTK GPS system.

After a few trial runs, they found that the prototype works best only in idealized scenarios and would occasionally mistake the location of the tree’s trunk. Even though this exact robot may not be ideal for the intended purpose, Haberland and Chmiel still found its RTK GPS to be the most successful part of the project. Since the robot is self-navigating and solar-powered, this particular prototype could instead be used as an autonomous platform where other hardware could be mounted to spray pesticides or carry out similar activities. While “Theo” the robot may not have a future as a tree caliper, the robot’s RTK GPS does have the potential to be an inexpensive alternative to other systems already on the market.

Agricultural Engineering Society

aes

“AES has been my home at Cal Poly for the last three years. Through peer and industry connections, my passion for the industry has grown and become more clearly defined.”

Ryan Vived, third-year bioresource and agricultural engineering major

AES is a professional club focused on preparing students of the BRAE Department for their careers through building an industry network. AES is the overarching club for Tractor Pull, Grow Crew, Precision Automation in Agriculture Club, and the 1/4 Scale Tractor Design Team, to name a few. Students attend monthly meetings as well as quarterly activities to build community and leadership skills.