The Introduction of College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology

The College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering was set up in May, 2013, whose former is the Department of Agricultural Engineering. The college’s origin dates back to the discipline of Agricultural Machinery Design and Manufacturing in the Luoyang Technology Institute, which began to recruit undergraduate students from 1960. After more than 50 years of development, the college has become a multi-level talent training base for doctor, master, graduate, and outstanding talents. There are two undergraduate majors, namely Agricultural Mechanization and Its Automation, and Agricultural Electrification, which are both majors for national excellent talents of agriculture and forestry program. The Agricultural Mechanization and Its Automation major is not only a national specialty, but also one of the earliest majors set up in Henan University of Science and Technology. The college has one primary discipline doctor program (Mechanical Engineering: the direction of Agricultural Machinery Design and Manufacturing), one primary discipline master program (Agricultural Engineering), and four secondary discipline master programs (Agricultural Mechanization Engineering, Agricultural Electrification, Agricultural Machinery Design and Manufacturing, Agricultural Extension). The discipline of Agricultural Engineering is the key discipline of Henan Province. Currently, there are over 40 postgraduate students, and over 600 graduate students.

The College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering has 35 faculty and staff members, including 5 professors, 5 associate professors, and 22 doctors. The college has 3 doctor supervisors, 10 master supervisors, and 8 part-time supervisors. The teachers with doctor’s or master’s degree have a proportion of 94%, forming a teaching and research team with rational structure of age and title, and high academic level.

The College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering consists of 3 departments and 1 institute, namely the Departments of Agricultural Mechanics, Agricultural Electrification, Agricultural Engineering, and the Institute of Agricultural Engineering. The college has a series of discipline platforms, such as Henan Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Agricultural Equipment, Henan Engineering Laboratory for Modern Agricultural Equipment Manufacturing Technology, Leading Unit of Henan Innovation Strategic Alliance for Modern Agricultural Equipment Technology, and Cultivation Base of Henan Key Laboratory for Agricultural Equipment Manufacturing Technology. The college has an agricultural engineering experiment center, with a area of around over 6000 m² and having a number of high-precision experimental instruments such as remote-measuring equipment, high-speed image acquisition system, machine vision test bed, and electronic universal testing machine.

The College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering has strong advantages and distinct features in basic research and product development of agricultural equipment. As the host unit, it has undertaken the thirteenth five-year national key technology project “Research of Harvesting Technology and Equipment for Characteristic Coarse Cereals”, the twelfth five-year national key technology support project “Research and Demonstration of Key Equipment for Main Crops in Hilly Area”. The college has established over 30 bases of production, education and research, and completed over 50 technology development projects, in corporation with YTO Group Corporation, Shanghai Xiangming Machinery Factory, Ningbo Benye Tractor manufacturing Co., Ltd., Henan Tobacco Corporation, and Luoyang Tractor Research Institute Co., Ltd.. After several years of resource integration and direction concision, the college has had 5 characteristic research directions, namely Crop Planting and Transplanting Equipment Technology, Crop Harvesting Equipment Technology, Intelligent Agricultural Equipment Technology, Facility Agricultural Equipment and Internet of Things Technology, Bionic Agricultural Equipment Technology. In recent years, the college has undertaken more than 20 national research projects, more than 40 provincial and ministerial research projects, obtained 4 second awards for the Henan scientific advancement，published more than 200 academic papers (among over 100 papers has been included in SCI, EI, or CPCI), published more than 30 textbooks and monographs, and obtained more than 100 invention patents.

In future, the College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering will adhere to the school motto of “Virtue, Knowledge, Progress and Practice”, take discipline platform construction as an opportunity, and keep forging ahead to build an innovative college.