Invited by Tao Lin (ZJU-100 Professor), Prof. K.C. Ting, Vice Dean of International Campus Zhejiang University, gave an academic presentation on “Planning for Future ABE”. The presentation mainly talked about the history and development of the discipline of Agricultural Biosystems Engineering (ABE). Prof. Ting specially introduced the special meeting about issues regarding the names and contents of educational programs about ABE in detail, which was organized by ASABE in 2005, in Tempa, Florida. Several topics were discussed, including curriculum and accreditation, student interest and recruiting, industry recognition, and professional engineering licensing and professional society membership. Prof. Ting argued that the name of Agricultural Biosystems Engineering fully illustrated the engineering characteristic and the goal of serving the agriculture of this discipline. In conclusion, the vision of this discipline is “creating a world with abundant food, energy, water and a healthy environment”. The mission of this discipline is “enhancing sustainable productivity of food and agricultural systems through innovative biosystems that are empowered”. Besides, Prof. Ting introduced the core competencies of ABE of UIUC, including automation, culture, environment and systems (ACESys model). At last, Prof. Ting discussed where ABE will go from here and introduced the eight-stage of conducting a strategic plan to develop ABE (refer to LEADING CHANGE wrote by John P. Kotter, Harvard Business School Press, 1996,187p) .

At the Q & A session, Prof. Ting answered the questions from participating faculties and students in detail. In response to the question about the cultivation of students majoring in ABE, Prof. Ting stressed that cooperation between the university and government that tend to hire students of ABE is critical to enhance students’ ability and career competence.

Brief introduction of Prof. Ting. Prof. Ting now serves as Professor and Vice Dean, International Campus of Zhejiang University. Prof. Ting (PhD-Illinois & Professional Engineer-New Jersey) served as Professor and Head, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, UIUC from 2004 to 2016. He also served as department head/chair at The Ohio State University, Rutgers University, and University of Houston in the U.S.A. He has been leading research teams to develop and implement methodologies for system techniques, computer models, simulation and optimization results, and decision support systems for agricultural production and intelligent food systems, as well as to study the related issue of automation, energy efficiency, environmental impact, and economic feasibility. His direct research funding includes PI and Co-PI for over US$ 12million. He has published over 295 articles, papers, monographs, presentations, and reports. He has delivered over 135 invited presentations in 17 countries. He has participated in establishing international collaborative education and research programs between institutions in the U.S. and countries in Asia, Europe, Middle East, South American, and Africa.