College of ACES continues to evolve

CHICAGO — The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois has evolved over time.

“We had 15 departments and now we have seven departments and two interdisciplinary programs. We offer 30 undergraduate majors, 25 master’s degrees and 18 graduate certificates,” said Germán Bollero, dean of the College of ACES.

“Our strategic plan is to provide transforming learning experiences, significant visual societal impact and steward natural resources,” he said during a presentation at the Chicago Farmers meeting.

“We are the oldest college at the U of I with many roots. We are looking at where we’re going and how we can impact society as we move forward.

“We do a lot of work on sustainability and how we are going to grow food and protect national resources and we do the same thing with nutrition and wellbeing,” said the college dean who is also the Robert A. Easter Chair.

Currently, over 2,750 undergrad students and 750 graduate students are studying at the college. “We have students representing 92 counties with 70% of the students coming from six counties — Cook, Will, DuPage, Lake, Kane and Champaign,” Bollero reported. “I’m trying to have representation from 102 counties.”

The largest department at the college is Agricultural and Consumer Economics. “Food Science and Human Nutrition is a very exciting department and we have an extraordinary program in hospitality management that is attracting a lot of students,” the dean stated. “We have transformed plant biotechnology from a concentration to a major and now it is a fast-growing major.”

ACES also partners with other colleges on campus. “Crop Sciences has a major that is a combination of computer science and crop sciences,” Bollero noted. “That’s a fascinating major and our goal is get 20 students per year in that major.”

About 1,900 students are admitted to ACES each year. “We had 593 students accept and the big separation is the cost of education and access to the U of I,” the dean explained. “Scholarships are the number one way to bring students to the U of I.”

In addition, Bollero said, leadership opportunities for students are key. “We provide experiential learning that goes beyond just an internship. We are trying to build that within classes and we’re inviting companies to help us.”

Global engagement is another part of the educational experience at the college. “We have students come to our college because they are very interested in the international nature of food and agriculture,” the speaker said. “Twenty percent of our programs include internships or research opportunities outside of the U.S. and 131 ACES students studied abroad last year.”

Over the last two years, Bollero said, the college has focused on making it easier for students to obtain degrees. “We have online classes and you can stack certificates to get a degree,” he added. “We put out a certificate in hemp production that included three courses and we got 1,500 people sign up for it.”

This is the first semester the college offered a bachelor’s degree in Sustainability in Food and Environmental Systems. “We are trying to make this the first completely online bachelor’s degree in the college to accommodate people for degree completions,” the dean said. “It is very flexible to help veterans or people who are working that can’t be on campus.”

Research is an important aspect of the College of ACES. “We solve problems and we advance society by the impact we have,” Bollero stated. “This past fiscal year we reached $80 million in research expenditures.”

College researchers have been collecting data from the Morrow Plots since 1876. “They are the oldest agricultural experiment in the U.S. and the second oldest in the world,” the dean said.

“From the Morrow Plots, we jump to artificial intelligence farms,” the speaker said. “The College of ACES built the first AI center funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture almost three years ago.”

The AI farm produces a massive amount of data, Bollero said, and the goal is to use that data for making decisions. “We use AI to help us determine the right types of yeast fermentation to develop new products,” he explained.

“One of the largest projects is the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation that is funded by the Department of Energy to grow biomass crops and transform them into something we can use that is beyond ethanol,” the speaker said.

“We need to identify the right plants to grow to make it profitable and we also need to detect the right strains of yeast that will do the work for us in fermentation for the products we want,” he said. “We think there’s huge room for the bioeconomy to come to the U of I.”

The South Farms at the U of I covers 3,000 acres and includes dairy, swine, beef and poultry production facilities. “We maintain the federal germplasm collection for soybeans where we have over 20,000 soybeans from all over the world,” Bollero said. “We plant a large proportion of that germplasm every year.”

Students should consider the College of ACES more than just a place to obtain a bachelor’s degree. “It should not end with four years on campus,” he stated. “We should provide educational programs that will help you with reskilling or changing careers.”

For more information about the U of I College of ACES, go to www.aces.illinois.edu.