Ting recognized with ASABE Academic Leadership Award

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has named K.C. Ting as the recipient of the first-ever James R. and Karen A. Gilley Academic Leadership Award, in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments and exceptional leadership at academic and professional society levels.

Ting is a professor and head of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Illinois. For more than 30 years, he has devoted himself to enhancing human capacity with knowledge and wisdom through the advancement of agricultural and biological engineering education, research, service, and the profession within a global context. He is widely acclaimed for his leadership efforts in helping to connect U.S. institutions and colleagues with their counterparts in Europe, Taiwan, Japan, India, Israel, China, Brazil, and Africa.

Before coming to Illinois in 2004, he served as chair of the food, agricultural and biological engineering department at The Ohio State University, the bioresource engineering department at Rutgers University, and the mechanical engineering technology department at the University of Houston. He successfully shepherded the transition of all of these agricultural engineering department programs to include biological engineering, and he was instrumental in advancing the development of technical systems management programs at both Ohio State University and University of Illinois.  

He has hosted international visiting scholars and served on eight external review teams, chairing three, to evaluate academic and research programs at the college and department (and research units) levels in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and China. He has served as a member of the African Scientific Committee for the establishment of future African Institutes of Science and Technology and a member of the Subcommittee on Biological Science and Engineering. 

In his own research, Ting pioneered and advanced a holistic approach to agricultural automation research and education in the areas of machine perception, reasoning/learning, communication, and task planning and execution. He has developed robotics and decision support for plant-based engineering research and educational programs. Ting led a team to develop and provide engineering solutions for biomass feedstock production within the Energy Biosciences Institute, a 10-year, $500 million initiative funded by BP.

A 30-year member and ASABE Fellow, Ting has made contributions to several technical committees and also served as an editor and associate editor for Transactions of the ASABE and Applied Engineering in Agriculture. He is currently serving on the ASABE Foundation Board of Trustees. 

Ting’s numerous publications include more than 230 proceedings, conferences papers, and reports. He has received many awards and honors for his work, including Cook College, Rutgers University, Alpha Zeta Professor of the Year; Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Guest Chair Professor; and various Best Paper honors and Certificates of Appreciation.  Ting is a past recipient of ASABE’s Kishida International award and was named a Fellow in ASABE as well as the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.   His other professional memberships include the American Society of Engineering Education, America Society of Mechanical Engineers, and seven honorary societies. 

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is an international scientific and educational organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food, and biological systems. Its 9,000 members, from more then 100 countries, are consultants, managers, researchers, and others who have the training and experience to understand the interrelationships between technology and living systems. Further information on the Society can be found at www.asabe.org.
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Contact: K.C. Ting, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 217/333-3570.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.