Date: 10-18-2004
Contact: Cheryl Cobb, 334-844-2220, cobbche@auburn.edu

International Exposure for Biosystems Engineering Students and Faculty

AU Students and Faculty Make A Difference in Brazil 

Biosystems engineering students Sara Johnson and Matt Webster traveled to Araçuai, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, where they spent three weeks working on a project that is improving the survival and health of children through development of safe drinking water sources; increasing the quantity of water available for washing, bathing and food production; and assisting the communities in taking responsibility for their water problems through new knowledge, skills and greater independence from outside assistance. 

Sarah and Matt traveled to Brazil with Kyung Yoo, professor of biosystems engineering.  Yoo has been working with Bryan Duncan and Bill Deutsch of the Departments of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture and Dennis Shannon of the Department of Agronomy and Soils on a project sponsored by the Christian Children's Fund - Brazil.   The title of the project is "Improving the health and well-being of children in northeast Brazil through better management of water resources." 

The team has worked with a number of communities, including Aqua Limpa, where they worked with the community to build a concrete embankment to create a reservoir and plans to install a pipeline to supply domestic water to the town.  In the Mandinga community they helped build a medium size earthen embankment and reservoir which provides water for non-human consumption uses such as bathing, washing, animal watering and small-scale irrigation.

Yoo provided all necessary technical and development information for the embankments. The project also helps the communities install roof catchments to store water during the rainy season.  Prior to the installations of these systems, families (especially women and children) traveled several kilometers to carry buckets of poor-quality water to their homes for drinking and cooking.  This project has changed the living conditions of the families by providing more and cleaner water for family care.

During the trip to the Jequitinhonha Valley, the students visited several program communities to learn about community life and the need for better living conditions.  The students were able to use their training in engineering and geospatial technologies (GPS and GIS) to survey the program communities and then develop two and three dimensional maps of sites for future water project development.  In addition to getting real-life experience at putting their engineering training to work, Sarah and Matt were able to learn about different cultures and the many ways in which biosystems engineers can work in these different settings.

AU Faculty Present Work at International Venues

At the invite of the Rural Development Administration of Korea, assistant Kyung Yoo faculty member in the Department of Biosystems Engineering, presented a paper at the International Symposium on Non-point Source Pollution in Daejon, Korea, in September.

Several AU biosystems engineering faculty and graduate students presented papers at the 2004 International Meeting of ASAE, which was held August 1 through 4 in Ottawa, Canada.   

  • Oladiran Fasina presented papers on Physical Characteristics of Pellets from Poultry Litter, and Moisture Sorption Properties of Sweet Potatoes.
  • John Fulton presented papers on Comparison of Variable Rate Granular Fertilizer Applicators, and an As-Applied Spatial Data Model for Evaluating Variable-Rate Fertilizer Application Accuracy. 
  • Puneet Srivastava presented a paper on a Watershed-Scale Model for Maximizing the Benefits of Riparian Reforestation.
  • Tim McDonald presented papers on An Optical Method for Measuring Yield on a Tree-Length Harvesting System (coauthored by graduate student Layne Owen), and Assessment of Soil Amendments for Erosion Control on Off-Road Vehicle Trails (coauthored by graduate student Jon Davis). 
  • Graduate student Christian Brodbeck presented a paper on Background Water Quality Analysis from the Kentucky Off-Road Vehicle Trails.