Speaker(s): Dr. Van Godbold and Mr. Will Cross -- John Deere & Company

Speakers' Titles: Module Engineering Lead, John Deere Enterprise Electric Drives Services Group

Seminar Title: Electrification of agricultural machinery               

Abstract of Talk:
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 to see some of the interesting things John Deere does in the electrical and computer engineering field to engineer equipment that plays a part in feeding, clothing, and sheltering the world.

Biographical Sketch of the Speaker(s):
Van Godbold received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina. Will Cross got his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the proper university, Georgia Tech, but he got them in the wrong discipline, mechanical engineering.  Fortunately, he was hired into John Deere to engineer electric drives and thereby rectified his youthful error.

Will and Van will present some of their electrical engineering work in deploying electric drive systems on Deere vehicles while giving an overview of the myriad contributions electrical and computer engineers make to the development of John Deere equipment.