History of the Department
1863 | Kansas State Agricultural College was chartered |
1909 | Four extension agricultural engineers are hired |
1913 | Agricultural engineering (AE) curriculum appears in the K-State undergraduate catalog for the first time |
1915 | Department of farm machinery is created |
1916 | First AE degree is awarded to John Welsh |
1921 | Department of farm machinery is renamed agricultural engineering |
1924 | First AE master’s degree is awarded to S.R. Todorovic |
1938 |
Agricultural engineering awards 100th bachelor's and master's degrees |
1948 | Ten K-State AE graduates serve as department heads at other universities |
1953 | Department of agricultural engineering offices move to Seaton Hall west wing |
1957 | All AE research is transferred under Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station |
1959 | New north wing of Seaton Hall becomes the first home of the department of agricultural engineering |
1963 | Agricultural mechanization degree added to curriculum |
1968 | Agricultural engineering awards 500th degree |
1976 | First general Ph.D. degree awarded in the College of Engineering |
1984 | Agricultural engineering awards 1,000th degree |
1990 | Agriculture mechanization degree is renamed agricultural technology management degree |
1994 | Department of agricultural engineering is renamed department of biological and agricultural engineering (BAE) |
2000 | First Ph.D. degree is awarded in BAE |
2003 | BAE awards 1,500th degree |
2004 | West and north Seaton Hall are renovated |
2008 | Biological system engineering becomes the official name of the undergraduate engineering degree |
2011 | Department receives approval to offer a master’s degree program in biotechnology at the K-State Olathe Campus |
2020 | The department is named the Carl and Melinda Helwig Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering |