By: Kelly Crocker, Grace Ko, Chris Underwood, and Erin Hensien

This Tuesday the engineering majors got the chance to visit the Thomas M. Brooks Forest Product Center. They got to take a closer look into the world of engineering and think about possible career paths by talking with an expert in the field about his research. This research centered around the process of the gasification of biomass and how it can affect the environment.

Hyperlink: https://cnre.vt.edu/college/facilities/index.html

The process of the gasification of biomass has four steps. The wood chips are dried, then heated in an environment lacking oxygen so that they don’t burn but are reduced to charcoal and tar. This charcoal and tar is then burned in a combustion chamber and the gases produced are collected. This “Syngas” is the desired product because it can be used to power motors, generators, and vehicles.

The gasification of biomass can have many positive environmental effects. This process sustains itself and can support other products. This energy source reduces air pollution by reducing the severity of the presence of greenhouse gases and closing the cycle of carbon dioxide. The cycle of carbon dioxide is closed since the process does not produce carbon dioxide, and only releases the carbon dioxide taken in by the tree during photosynthesis. The implementation of the gasification of biomass has significant potential success in rural areas. Since most communities in rural areas already use the burning of wood to produce energy, this process can collect the natural byproduct and repurpose it in a useful way.

Overall, we had a fun and engaging experience learning about the gasification process. Most of us had never heard about this process before so we gained new knowledge about the different areas of biosystems engineering. This visit to the Forest Product Center helped to continue our look into the field of agricultural engineering.

By: Natalee Baker, Joy Kim, Karmine Malhi, & Maeve McCaffery

A summer barbecue smell filled the room as we grilled our hamburgers on an early Tuesday morning.  In the midst of the smoky air, the students gathered around Dr. Joe Eifert who, through detailed slides and offhand jokes, explained the importance of food preparation and safety.

On July 11, 2017, the GSA food science major congregated in the food science and technology laboratory to conduct a lab involving the measurement of temperatures of meat in different states. Half of the class used electrical grills while the other half gathered outside to cook with traditional charcoal grills.  Each group received a data sheet and an assortment of temperature-measuring tools including infrared, probe, and color-changing thermometers.  Once the grills were up and running, Dr. Eifert passed around a variety of burger to the class to analyze how differing meats and states affected cooking times. The meats provided were thawed beef, frozen beef, thawed turkey, and frozen turkey.

Students used the smaller electrical George Foreman grill which only allowed for one burger to cook at a time.  As Dr. Eifert said, “it might be silly for four people to stare at one burger for awhile so make the most of it!”  The conventional charcoal grills, even smaller in size, took a bit longer to cook to the same temperature but worked to the same functions.

Before coming into this program, most students had absolutely no idea that the recommended burger cooking temperature was 160 degrees Fahrenheit.  That temperature is recommended to kill the foodborne-illness causing bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella that survive until that point.  Cooking meats at 160 degrees Fahrenheit means that the bacteria has been exterminated and you are left with a beautiful, healthy, brown meat.

Our data sheets revealed the expected disparities in the differing types and states of meat. The average amount of time it took to cook a frozen patty was about two minutes more than a thawed one. The contrasting compositions of red and lean meats also led to their differing cooking times.

The day earlier, a confusing Monday of class changes, Dr. Eifert gave a relaxed but shocking lesson about disease in poorly cooked meat. In 1993, a strain of bacteria that is usually harmless, E. coli O157:H7, was found in the Jack in the Box burger meat. This particular strain of E. coli is deadly to humans, causing the death of four children and around 140 people were hospitalized. This meat was contaminated before reaching the restaurant, but the failure of Jack in the Box to cook their meat to 160 degrees was ultimately what caused the casualties. If the meat had been cooked to the recommended temperature, the harmful bacteria would have been killed.

In light of these horrifying food scandals, the most impactful take away our major had was to be precise in cooking our foods– if the thermometer isn’t hot, your cooking will be for naught!

For more incite on the Jack in the Box meat scandal, click the link to watch this video!

By Britney Armstrong, Beth Smith, Benjamin Guo, Joshua Gilliard

Being a school of agriculture, you’d think that we would be spending all of our time on farms. However, there are many things we must learn in a classroom before we get to see the animals at Virginia Tech’s farms. However, we made up for that classroom time by visiting four farms with four different animals in one afternoon.

Cows

The first steer we met at the cattle farm was a 1 ton Hereford with a cannula protruding from his neck. The cannula allows the students and professors to take grass samples. We then moved on to the cattle that were being trained to stand in a stall for the state show. The last group to visit the cows were able to help turn the cannulated steer out to the pasture! Getting to work with the cows was an exhilarating experience and it is all thanks to our wonderful tour guide!

Pigs

Visiting a pig farm was a great experience, and gave our noses a new farm fragrance to breath in. Past the smell, our trip offered an interesting perspective of both hogs and piglets. Pigs are dangerous to each other due to their non picky appetites. In fact, our guide told us that the reason the pigs did not have spiral tails is because other pigs would eat off their tails. Aside from their cannibalistic habits, pigs are really fun, filthy animals.

Horses

Today we had the opportunity to visit a farm that bred horses like the black stallion “King” in the image. The horses were extremely friendly to everyone on the tour and many people got to experience interacting with a horse for the first time. The tour guide informed us about the many activities taking place at the farm including how they used artificial insemination to breed the horses which relates to the animal science lectures we had during class. Overall, meeting the horses at the farm was a neat experience and many appreciated petting and feeding these remarkable animals.

Sheep

We also had the chance to stop by a sheep farm during our trip. We met the barn cat, tried to pet some sheep, and learned how to herd sheep between two pens (which was more difficult than anticipated). Some students even got a chance to flip sheep (as shown in this video), which is usually done to hold sheep still during shearing or medical examinations.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apEhZ1sO9lchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apEhZ1sO9lc)

By: Tyler Palicia and Alex Ton

We woke up at 8 o’clock sharp, excited to face the day. We wondered, as we brushed our teeth, “What interesting information would we learn in our classes!” As we rushed along to breakfast, to enjoy delicious D2 omelets, we anticipated a riveting day of unique, informative lectures. Little did we know, our first class “economics is all around us,” would change our entire outlook of the economics that we see all around us every day. Our informative professor, Dr. Mike Ellerbrock, greeted us with a smile. He posed questions to us, like,”Why do most men vote against polygamy?” It made us wonder, “Yeah! Why do most men vote against polygamy!?” Mike allowed us time to discuss, and occasionally lead us to the answer. The answer to that question is that men vote against polygamy because they don’t want the richest and most attractive guys marrying all of the eligible women. As usual for the economic lectures so far, the lesson was well received by the masses. We personally enjoyed the lecture because it gave an insight into the life around us and why things that seem normal to us but in reality are very odd. It showed us the large part that economics plays in our lives and how the macroeconomic and mass production scale can make many things that are logically wrong but economically right. These questions inspired us to think a little more deeply about the world around us, in an economic context.

Citation: Taken by Alex Ton during the lecture