Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
- South Dakota State University. Agricultural Engineering
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Courses related to agricultural engineering and the application of engineering principles to farming have always been taught at South Dakota State University. The first formal department to teach such courses was called the Department of Architectural and Agricultural Engineering. This department effectively combined civil and agricultural engineering course work, and the name was subsequently changed to the Department of Civil and Agricultural Engineering in 1902. In 1925, a separate Department of Agricultural Engineering was established in the Division of Agriculture, but students were required to take some basic courses through the Division (now College) of Engineering. Today the department is administered through both the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences and the College of Engineering. In 1999, the South Dakota Board of Regents approved the addition of "Biosystems Engineering" to the department name Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering.
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering is the science of engineering applied to the facilities and processes of agriculture and related industries. The curriculum includes foundation courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry with engineering emphasis in a wide variety of technical areas. These technical areas include natural resource management, irrigation and drainage, water resources development, machine dynamics and design, machine vision, agricultural power, electrical power utilization, properties and processing of biological materials, environmental control for livestock, control and disposal of agricultural wastes, agricultural structures, computers, and instrumentation. Courses are also offered in the fields of meteorology, climatology, and micro-climatology to interested engineers and students in other colleges.
Agricultural Systems Technology is another aspect of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. It is designed to give broad training in the agricultural sciences and the technologies appropriate to agriculture and its associated industries.