ACE

Chaya Sandler’s return from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, brought with it an abundance of experiences, stories, and knowledge to share back on campus. Her trip, which was sponsored by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign program meant to enhance global competencies among staff and foster global engagement, was nothing short of enriching.

Agricultural field trials can provide crucial information that helps scientists and farmers optimize production and reduce environmental impacts. The Data-Intensive Farm Management Project, housed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, works with farmers to conduct large-scale scientific experiments using precision agriculture. The goal is to generate real-world data that can help farmers make efficient management decisions and increase profits.

A team of undergraduate students from the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, competed at the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) 2024 Venture Building Challenge on Nov. 14–15.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been named one of the nine colleges with the best financial planning programs by WealthManagement.com, a distinction that places Illinois alongside top institutions nationwide and highlights the program’s ability to prepare students for successful careers as financial advisors. 

Most corn and soybean fields in the U.S. are planted with herbicide-resistant crop varieties. However, the evolution of superweeds that have developed resistance to common herbicides is jeopardizing current weed management strategies. Agricultural robotics for mechanical weeding is an emerging technology that could potentially provide a solution.

Thaddeus Bergschneider, an undergraduate student in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been elected as the 2024-2025 National FFA President.

As the world’s native bee populations are declining, crop production requiring pollinators increasingly relies on commercial pollination services. In the U.S., the beekeeping industry is in great demand, and truckloads of bee colonies travel the country to accommodate crop growers.

Conventional food and agricultural production systems employ a linear “take, make, waste” approach: taking natural resources from the Earth to make food and fuel, generating waste that contaminates the soil and water, and emitting harmful pollutants.

The financial planning program in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is growing and thriving. The program, a concentration in the ACE undergraduate major, has doubled in size over the past eight years, and now serves 175 students who are preparing for careers as financial advisors.

As part of a prestigious fellowship sponsored by The Norman Borlaug Institute, Molly Boyd, a 2024 graduate from the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will spend the next several months working as an agricultural extension agent and teacher in Ghana.