Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering (FABE) graduate student, Sandeep Dhakal, was awarded first place in the Boyd-Scott Graduate Research Award (Master's Category) at the 2025 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Annual International Meeting. 

The Boyd-Scott Graduate Research Award recognizes excellence in the conduct and presentation of research dedicated to engineers who exclusively design equipment, facilities and processes for the sustainable operation of a biological system. 

A new study, led by FABE Research Scientist Beenish Saba, found that adding an electrical jolt to fermentation of industrial food waste speeds up the process and increases the yield of platform chemicals that are valuable components in a wide range of products. This discovery could increase efficiency and sustainability, as well as decrease the cost of production of multipurpose chemicals. In addition, Ohio State University researchers also discovered that combining two bacterial species in the electro-fermentation mix allowed for more targeted chemical production. 

A group led by Dr. Darren Drewry in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering (FABE) at Ohio State University recently published an article in the peer-reviewed journal Agricultural Water Management on the use of machine learning (ML) to estimate total ecosystem water use (also known as evapotranspiration or latent energy flux) in agricultural systems.