Speaker:                  Van Godbold

Speaker’s Title:        Lead Component Engineer, Electric Drives Services Group, John Deere

Abstract:
Credible projections of world population growth estimate a peak of nine billion people in the year 2050 from the seven billion today. This larger population and increasing global affluence will drive a need for a doubling of global agricultural output over the same period. This increased output must come from an increase in agricultural productivity, and John Deere will play a key role in helping farmers worldwide provide for these human needs. Increased precision and productivity in farm machinery will come largely from electronics, sensors, field robotics, automation, electric drives, control systems, and other areas that require premier electrical and computer engineering talent.

Attend this presentation and to learn about how electrical and computer engineers at John Deere are critical to helping feed the world in the coming decades.

Bio:
Van Godbold grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, a place as hot as Atlanta. He did not grow up on a farm, and he only occasionally helped his parents in the garden. Despite this unpromising start, he has been employed at John Deere for ten years and is passionate about creating electric drive systems for agricultural, turf, and construction machinery. His job includes power electronic design, embedded software and hardware design, control systems, electric machine design, and electronics and electric machine manufacturing.