Herbert biosystems engineering alumni (left to right): Miela Hamm, Breanna Larson, and Lily Hague. Photo courtesy of Lori Duncan.
The University of Tennessee’s biosystems engineering senior design team proudly represented the Herbert College of Agriculture by placing first at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Gunlogson Environmental International Student Design Competition in July.
The ASABE Gunlogson Environmental Design Student Competition is a national competition where undergraduate students design relevant engineering projects and engage in professional competition in environmentally and biologically related design. Now Herbert alumni, our biosystems engineering team consisted of Lily Hague, Miela Hamm, Andrea Khounmy, Breanna Larson, and Abby Worth. Professors Xi Zhang and Hao Gan of biosystems engineering served as their mentors on the project.
Their project involved an automated system to collect soil water samples over extended periods, enhancing the study of water, nutrient, and contaminant transport through the soil. This type of system enables extracting more samples over a longer period of time, providing more detailed information than has been possible with standard expensive and time-consuming manual sampling.
The team submitted their written report in May 2026 to compete against undergraduate teams from across the country. The committee selected them as one of the top three teams and invited them to attend the ASABE Annual International Meeting (AIM) to deliver an oral presentation. After a year of extensive research, engineering design, and teamwork, the students delivered an excellent presentation and confidently addressed the judges’ questions during the Q&A session.
Gan says, “Given their dedication, hard work, and outstanding performance, I believe they were very deserving of winning first place in this competition.”