Engineering Student Team Wins Design Contest

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Biological engineering students helped a local chocolate company work with cacao farmers in developing countries.

A team of biological engineering graduates received second place at the 2016 G.B. Gunlogson Student Environmental Design Competition, hosted by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). The team included Christian Heymsfield, Kyle Lawrence, J. Dillon Madden and Paul Naegle. They made a presentation at the 2016 Annual International Meeting of ASABE at Orlando in July. Their faculty advisors were Julie Carrier, professor of biological and agricultural engineering (now relocated) and Thomas Costello, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering.

This is the seventh consecutive year that biological engineering students from the University of Arkansas have placed in the top three at a national design competition, and since 2010, 11 student teams from the department have been recognized nationally.

The students received the award for a project they completed as seniors at the University of Arkansas. They worked with KYYA Chocolate, a company based in Elm Springs, Arkansas. The company wanted to make it easier for farmers in developing countries to process and export high-quality cacao. Processing cacao involves fermentation, and this procedure is often inconsistent, leading to variation in chocolate quality. To solve this problem, the students designed a fermentation box and a solar-powered drying system that farmers could easily construct using materials that they could acquire locally. They also created a management procedure for farmers to follow.

"I am very proud of this U of A Biological Engineering team, which continued the rich tradition of placing at the top in this international engineering senior student design competition under the leadership of Dr. Tom Costello," said Lalit Verma, head of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. "They addressed a relevant food process engineering need to assist a local business and represented the U of A Biological Engineering program in an excellent professional manner in front of an international audience."