The Participation of Diverse Faculty and Graduate Students in U.S. Engineering Programs: Implications for Future Agricultural Technology

Graduate programs in Engineering have immediate applications for the fields of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, but they also are relevant to Rural Development, Agricultural Extension, Soil Science, Food Technology, Forestry and Agronomy, Agricultural Management as well as other fields. Fortunately, due to its importance data are available to generate numerous insights into the top Engineering programs as well as all Engineering programs in the United States. Thus, for example, analyses are conducted here that show the number of women and/or minorities who serve as Engineering faculty and graduate students in top Engineering schools is trivial in proportion to white males. Suggestions are made for remediating this situation. As well, the implications of this situation are discussed by noting some high technology applications of Engineering for contemporary and future agricultural innovations **This work is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Multistate project 1010770