History of the Department

1863 Kansas State Agricultural College was chartered
1909 Four extension agricultural engineers are hired
1913 Agricultural engineering (AE) curriculum appears in the K-State undergraduate catalog for the first time
1915 Department of farm machinery is created
1916 First AE degree is awarded to John Welsh
1921 Department of farm machinery is renamed agricultural engineering
1924 First AE master’s degree is awarded to S.R. Todorovic
1938

Agricultural engineering awards 100th bachelor's and master's degrees

1948 Ten K-State AE graduates serve as department heads at other universities
1953 Department of agricultural engineering offices move to Seaton Hall west wing
1957 All AE research is transferred under Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station
1959 New north wing of Seaton Hall becomes the first home of the department of agricultural engineering
1963 Agricultural mechanization degree added to curriculum
1968 Agricultural engineering awards 500th degree
1976 First general Ph.D. degree awarded in the College of Engineering
1984 Agricultural engineering awards 1,000th degree
1990 Agriculture mechanization degree is renamed agricultural technology management degree
1994 Department of agricultural engineering is renamed department of biological and agricultural engineering (BAE)
2000 First Ph.D. degree is awarded in BAE
2003 BAE awards 1,500th degree
2004 West and north Seaton Hall are renovated
2008 Biological system engineering becomes the official name of the undergraduate engineering degree
2011 Department receives approval to offer a master’s degree program in biotechnology at the K-State Olathe Campus
2020 The department is named the Carl and Melinda Helwig Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering