Agricultural Electrification and Automation is one of the traditional and characteristic disciplines of Jiangsu University. It began to recruit undergraduate students in 1960, and was granted the right of conferring Doctor¡¯s degree in 2001. In 2003, the primary discipline Agricultural Engineering, which covers Agricultural Electrification and Automation, was granted the right of conferring Doctor¡¯s degree. It was elected as the provincial key discipline successively during the 10th and 11th Five-year Plan periods in 2001 and 2006 and was elected as one of the national key discipline during the 11th Five-year Plan period in 2007.
Now an enterprising well-balanced academic team, led by the young and middle-aged professors, has gathered around the discipline of Agricultural Electrification and Automation. Within the team are 17 professors and 15 associate professors, and 26 doctor degree holders. Among them are also the National ¡°May 1¡± Labor Medalist, the Renowned Teacher of Jiangsu Province, Leader of Young and Middle-aged Scientists of the ¡°333 High-level Talent Cultivation Project¡±launched by Jiangsu Province, Academic Leaders of Jiangsu Qinglan Project, and one of the Top Ten Outstanding Young People of Jiangsu Province.
After over forty years¡¯ construction and development, five distinctive and stable research orientations have been established: agricultural electrical equipment and electric energy quality control, crop growth and environmental information test and control technology, technology of pest detection and precise chemical use, scaled breeding and environmental test and control technology for microorganisms, agricultural machinery monitoring and control technology on the basis of the profound research on the major scientific problems and technological difficulties in the agricultural electrification and automation. Since 2001, this discipline has undertaken and finished over 40 key national, ministerial and provincial projects, 13 of which are funded by the Natural Science Foundation, 6 by the National¡°863¡± Projects, 1 Key Technologies R&D Program. Over 400 papers have been published in academic periodicals at home or abroad, of which over 100 have been included by SCI and EI. So far this discipline has got 12 ministerial or provincial prizes for scientific and technological advancement, and has applied or been approved 26 invention patents.
This discipline now has a Modern Agricultural Equipment Lab, a key lab co-built by Ministry of Education and Jiangsu Province that lists the lab as the potential candidate for the National Key Laboratory, and the Demonstration Center of Electric and Electron Experiment Teaching of Jiangsu Province. It has the experimental equipments worth 39.3 million Yuan and a lab area of 5900 M2. It has become an important base for scientific research and personnel training in agricultural electrification and agricultural equipment automation in China.
