The Biological Systems Engineering Department will host the Future of BSE Days Event, a daylong event on March 28 that will bring together academia, industry and government stakeholders. Through discussions and activities, participants will help shape the department’s future and enhance its role in serving Nebraska and beyond in alignment with its land-grant mission.
With a theme of “Building a Regenerative BSE,” the event will be held in the East Campus Union’s Great Plains Room and will aim to “build a department and community that are adaptive, thriving and prepared to lead.”
Registration and the full agenda are available online.
As part of the “2025 Future of BSE Days,” the Friday event will be preceded by a graduate student lightning talk competition on Monday and a student/alumni mixer on Thursday.
Tiffany Heng-Moss, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and Mark Stone, BSE department head, will provide opening remarks for the Friday event.
The morning’s first session, “Rethinking Impact: The Land-Grant Mission for the Next Quarter Century,” will begin with remarks by Jenny Keshwani, associate professor and science literacy specialist, and include facilitated tabletop discussions.
Instructional visioning will be the focus of second session, “Agile & Adaptive Learning Models — the Future of BSE Education.” Derek Heeren, professor and irrigation engineer, will open the session. Heeren also is irrigation and agricultural water management education coordinator at the university’s Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute.
The morning will conclude with a session titled “Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in BSE,” with opening remarks by Santosh Pitla, professor of advanced machinery systems.
Following lunch, attendees will break into five workshops: Biomedical Engineering, Health and Safety Systems; Precision Irrigation Systems; Innovations in Education; Smart and Autonomous Biological Systems; and Sustainable Systems Engineering.
The event will conclude with workshop reports and discussion of lessons learned.
