This new state-of-the-art facility provides a common location for programs, faculty and staff currently occupying the Agricultural Engineering, the Biosystems Engineering, and the Plant Science Buildings.
This new major of Precision Agriculture, and its new facility, will be the first of its kind in the nation and will set the standard for this new collaborative major, combining many related fields of agricultural studies. The program includes over 35,000 SF of wet laboratories and 26,000 SF of industrial high bay research and teaching space. There are numerous specialty spaces including a dynamometer bay, a fabrication bay, a bio-processing suite, woodshop, 1/4 scale tractor lab and many other. In addition, there is also substantial classroom and office space to support the new Precision Agriculture major.
The overarching goal of this facility is to support collaboration. Throughout the facility there are casual studying areas, private group meeting area, conferences rooms and breakout space. Even the faculty offices are mixed and arranged around a collaboration core to facilitate greater interaction.
The facility has been designed to achieve LEED Silver Certifications and is equipped with numerous environmentally friendly and energy saving features including: lighting controls, daylighting, high efficiency HVAC equipment, a reflective roofing surface, recycled materials, low VOC materials and a 50 KW solar panel array on the roof.
SDSU is the first land-grant university in the country to offer both a bachelor’s degree and minor in precision agriculture. Students learn while participating in a collaborative program focusing on both the Department of Agronomy, Horticulture and Plant Science, and the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering within the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. The precision agriculture curriculum also incorporates other programs from across the university.
The precision agriculture major offers courses in data analytics, GPS-GIS technology, soil sciences, precision crop production, plant pathology, precision data mapping, sensor technology, precision farm machinery, electrical diagnosis, and weed/pest management.
“As a department, we are incredibly proud of the Raven Precision Agriculture Center,” said Barry Mielke, associate vice president for Facilities and Services at SDSU. “In addition to the usability and aesthetics of the building, our service teams ensure the building systems, or the behind-the-scenes type services like heating, cooling, electrical, plumbing and landscaping, are highly functional and durable. Designing, operating and maintaining those systems is critical for the building to win awards on day one, but more importantly for it to be functional and impressive 20-plus years from now, too. We are confident it will be.”
EAPC received the prestigious the AIA SD Merit Award for Outstanding Design on this facility. Check out the blog post here.
