Labs
With 36,306 square feet of lab facilities, the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering has the scope to handle a wide variety of engineering projects, including electronics and instrumentation, mechanical fabrication, wet chemistry, material properties analysis and fermentation technologies, controlled environment systems, grain handling, machinery systems, food engineering, biomechanics and bioprocess engineering.
Additional laboratories house controlled temperature-humidity units, a dedicated fabrication area for student senior design projects, and a series of bays for soil and machinery interaction testing, surface and sub-surface hydrology and waste management, and equine surfaces testing.
In total, the department has 20 labs where research is conducted on beer fermentation, water quality, precision agriculture, electric batteries, food engineering, microbiology, algae, biofuels, engines, welding and fabrication. Labs have broad analytical capabilities, skilled support staff and opportunities for undergraduate and graduate student involvement. Interested students should contact faculty to gauge funding opportunities.
Agricultural Machinery Research Laboratory & HVAC Training Facility
The department also maintains the Agricultural Machinery Research Laboratory and HVAC Training Facility, a 17,000-square-foot steel structure located near the football stadium. This facility provides key engineering, fabrication and machining support for a wide variety of teaching projects, particularly the capstone design course. Typically, undergraduate students are employed on various projects in this facility.
Field Work
Many students will have the opportunity to conduct field work. Locations include but are not limited to UK's North Farm, C. Oran Little Research Center, South Farm and Eden Shale Farm.
Currently, the 2,000-acre North Farm research includes initiatives, projects and programs in the departments of veterinary science, animal and food science, plant and soil sciences, biosystems and agricultural engineering, and entomology. The C. Oran Little Research Center houses UK's beef, swine and research units. The smaller South Farm has ongoing applied research projects. Eden Shale is a 971-acre learning and observational farm.
NTRA Charities Equine Surfaces & Safety Laboratory
The NTRA Charities Equine Surfaces and Safety Laboratory was funded starting in 2019 and focuses on improving the safety of racetrack and horse sports surfaces. Students in the Equine Surfaces Lab may have opportunities to work in the nonprofit Racing Surfaces Testing Lab, which coordinates and carries out testing of surfaces for performance and race horses.
Computer Lab
The student computer lab has 18 personal computers and networked printers for BAE students, staff and faculty. Several specialized programs are installed on these computers, including MATLAB, ArcInfo, SAS, Sigmaplot, AutoCAD and Inventor.
Faculty Labs
- Dr. Adedeji, Food Engineering Laboratory
- Dr. Barzee, Barzee Bioprocessing Laboratory
- Dr. Messer, mesoProgram
- Dr. Shi, Shi Lab
Additional Resources
The department publishes a weekly lab-safety video series called Lab Blab to help new undergraduate and graduate students learn best practices for lab work.
College of Engineering Facilities
The Barnhart Building and many labs are available to Biosystems Engineering students, including the WAARP lab.
