Faulkton, SD – May 11 – Walkabout Mother Bins recently made a $4000 donation to the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and participated in the department’s senior capstone course. The course is intended to put into practical application the students’ knowledge, experience, and skills learned during their college career by applying them to a project partnered on with industry professionals.
Walkabout Mother Bins partnered with senior students Jesica Guallpa, Baseet Salam, and Agyei Attakorah to develop a functioning return on investment calculator for their 4,000-bu, temporary, in-field grain storage system, the Walkabout Mother Bin. A Walkabout Mother Bin is an essential piece of grain handling equipment that dramatically increases harvest productivity and profit for grain farming operations.
According to Travis Johnson, Academic Advisor and Instructor in the department, working with industry partners gives the students two main advantages over in-house, non-industry-related projects: it allows the students to see what kinds of problems truly exist in industry rather than textbook examples, and it helps them develop professionally as they work closely with industry professionals with years of experience and knowledge.
“It’s important to employers for recent college graduates to have some real-world experience,” said Johnson. “Working with industry partners allows us to give the students an experience that is about as real-world as we can get within the confines of a university course.”
The return on investment calculator will allow owner/operators to input their farm acres, number of trucks and grain carts, fuel and labor costs, etc. and see first hand the savings realized by owning a Mother Bin.
“It was a pleasure working with the students and the University on their Senior Capstone project,” said Crystal Kopecky, North American Director of Sales for Walkabout Mother Bins. “They were successful in applying their skills learned during college to develop a functioning return on investment calculator for our Mother Bin. This calculator will be available to growers to calculate their ROI on a Mother Bin relevant to their specific operation. We wish the students the best of luck with their future plans.”
In addition to providing real world industry experience to three senior students, Walkabout Mother Bins made a $4000.00 donation to the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering to help fund the purchase of tools and equipment for the department as well as the purchase of project materials and awards for in-class, team-building competitions.
“Walkabout Mother Bins is proud to be able to make a donation to the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering,” said Dave Hedt, CEO of Walkabout Mother Bins. “Our purpose as a company is to make the lives of our customers better. In keeping with that purpose, by donating to the department we’re supporting the students who are learning to improve agricultural, food and biological systems, thus making peoples lives better.”
Headquartered in Faulkton, South Dakota, Walkabout Mother Bins focuses on quality constructed mother bins; providing an efficient, easy, and affordable harvest system that limits overhead and downtime for farmers.
