Professor K.C. Ting receives the ASABE Lalit and Aruna Verma Award for Excellence in Global Engagement 2021

ZJUI Professor K.C. Ting, Consultant and Former Vice Dean of the International Campus, Zhejiang University, and Department Head Emeritus in the ABE Department, UIUC, received the 2021 Lalit and Aruna Verma Award for Excellence in Global Engagement from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) at the ASABE Annual International Meeting. Prof. Ting was the fifth winner of the award since its first giving. The award recognizes Prof. Ting’s contributions to the profession of agricultural and biological engineering, excellence in global engagement, and outstanding efforts in international engineering education.

“I am very honored, yet humbled, by receiving the recognition from ASABE,” said Prof. Ting. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my productive and pleasant association with many colleagues globally over many years, in my own discipline of agricultural and biological engineering and beyond. My experience from working at ZJU’s International Campus in the past four plus years has been invaluable. The International Campus is truly an amazing academic community that enables all members to learn and succeed globally.”

Prof. Ting is known for his agricultural systems informatics and analytics work. He has been leading research teams to develop and implement the pioneering Automation-Culture-Environment oriented Systems (ACESys) analysis methodology, Concurrent Science, Engineering, and Technology (ConSEnT) decision support computational platform, and Intelligence Driven and Empowered Agricultural Systems (IDEAS). His work has been highly innovative and at the forefront of agricultural and biological engineering discipline. He has been very active in sharing globally, his knowledge on intelligent agricultural systems and agricultural and biological engineering education and research programs, including over 135 invited presentations and 30 academic program reviews. His contribution to engineering education in the U.S., Asia, Europe, and globally is highly impactful and widely recognized by his peers. He served as department head/chair of agricultural and biological engineering related departments at three U.S. land-grant universities for a total of over 22 years before he was appointed vice dean of International Campus and professor of ZJUI, Zhejiang University, in January 2017 for four years, to provide his many years of technical and educational expertise to contribute in the development and establishment of a brand-new university campus. He made major impacts in the strategy development, master planning, and international climate building of this first-class international higher education institution in China, and contributed to the education and research progress of ZJUI. In ZJUI, Prof. Ting has given several courses, like the CEE201-Systems Engineering & Economics, to the undergraduates, being supervisor of three graduates, also provided guidance and help for some team when they participated in international competition. In early 2020, he provided advice in modernizing the agricultural biosystems engineering program at Royal University of Agriculture in Cambodia.

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, founded in 1907, is an educational and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food, and biological systems. ASABE comprises members in more than 100 countries. It is the most influential international academic organization in this field.

Source: Zhejiang University-University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute (ZJU-UIUC Institute, ZJUI)