HARPER LIFE 2017/2018 the Harper Adams Club Harper Adams Alumni Association
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HARPER LIFE 2017/2018 The Harper Adams Club Harper Adams Alumni Association T Q’ A P F H F E LIFE AFTER HARPER - ALUMNI GIVING BACK HARPER LIFE IS PRODUCED HEADERTHE HARPER XXX AND PUBLISHED BY: Harper Adams University on behalf of its alumni association, The Harper Adams Club. ADAMS CLUB: Compiled and edited by: Julie Brook – Alumni Officer Annabelle Gardner – Marketing and Communications The Harper Adams Club committee meets approximately four times a year, Assistant usually weekday evenings at the university. Its activities include organising Contact: social and networking events and running the Harper Adams Club Scholarship The Alumni Office programme. Harper Adams University Newport We would like to hear from alumni to represent groups who graduated in the last ten Shropshire years. Come along to meet the other committee members informally at one of our TF10 8NB meeting with no obligation. Direct Line: +44 (0)1952 815297 Email: [email protected] If you would be interested in joining the committee please contact Julie Brook in the Alumni Office. Website: www.harper-adams.ac.uk/alumni Facebook: www.facebook.com/harperadamsalumni/ HARPER ADAMS CLUB COMMITTEE 2017-18 Twitter: @haclub President: Development Trust Representative: Other material (text and images) supplied by Press & Alex Law (1999-2003) Simon Jones (1996-2000) Publications staff: James Armstrong, Jaclyn Green, Tom Klages, Vice President: Advisory Members: Adreen Hart-Rule, Claire Robertson-Bennett Sarah Furniss (1998-2002) Nick Green (1995-1999) Designed and Printed by: Committee Members: Paul Rooke (1986-1992) Creative Digital Ros Barsley (1970-1973) Governance Representative: 01743 263 030 Sarah Collier (1999-2003) Richard Hambleton (1973-76) [email protected] www.creativedigitalprinting.com Michelle Evans (2011-15) Sam Green (2012-16) The views and opinions expressed in Harper Life Stephen Mansbridge (2007-15) are those of the contributors and, as such, do not Victoria Stead (2010-16) necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Donna Tavernor (2000-2004) Harper Adams Club or Harper Adams University. Ben Palmer (1996-2000) HARPER ADAMS CLUB COMMITTEE AND GUESTS AT THE 2016 ALUMNI OPEN DAY: Left to right: Sarah Furniss, Michelle Evans, Ele Acaster-Law, Alex Law (Harper Adams Club President), Simon Jones, Julie Brook, Dr David Llewellyn (Vice Chancellor), Richard Hambleton, Ros Barsley, Richard Barsley. CONTENTS Hands Free Hectare.................................................. 02 Count Back to Harper............................................... 13 Queen’s Anniversary Prize....................................... 05 1940s Memories....................................................... 14 Harper at the Top...................................................... 06 Alumni News............................................................. 17 Final Temperton Report........................................... 08 In Memoriam............................................................. 24 New Veterinary School............................................. 09 Thomas Harper Adams 200 years on...................... 27 Apprenticeships & Training...................................... 10 Field to Fork Festival................................................. 28 New Laboratories..................................................... 11 2 HARPER LIFE LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Harper Adams Club Members, On behalf of the Harper Adams Club may I welcome you to the latest edition of Harper Life. As you will read the University continues to go from strength to strength, leading the way with exciting projects such as the ‘Hands Free Hectare’, and as it produces ever more exceptional graduates our club membership continues to grow. Throughout the year the Harper Adams Club receives news and information from members all over the world, with our Alumni Officer, Julie Brook, acting as our main point of contact at the University. In June the club held another excellent annual open day, AGM and multiple year group reunion. The weather was exceptional with clear blue sky and temperatures reaching 30 degrees. It was again great to see so many club members and their families, many making their first trip back to Harper Adams since their graduation. The Harper Adams Club again awarded a record number of scholarships, receiving applications from an ever increasing The 2018 Alumni Open Day on 16 June will be even bigger and diversity and calibre of students. Fundraising for these scholarships better! Not only will we have our usual reunion marking 50, 25 and remains an important objective, with the club continuing its theme 10 year anniversaries but we will also be marking 40 continuous of ‘Count Back to Harper’ for our Annual Fund campaign. We had a years of engineering courses at Harper Adams (1950s vintage great response to past year’s campaign – thank you all. engineers will be very welcome too). But you don’t have to be in any of these groups to join us – come along anyway and meet The Harper Adams Club welcomes your feedback and ideas, and some new Harper friends! And if younger members of your family for those of you who may wish to have a more hands on approach are considering Harper Adams in their university choices there will or suggest new ideas for alumni activities there are always also be an Undergraduate Open Day on this date. opportunities to join the Club committee. Julie Brook in the Alumni Office will be happy to arrange for anyone interested to attend a committee meeting to find out more about us and what we do. May I take this opportunity to welcome all the 2017 graduates to the Harper Adams Club, and encourage you all to keep in touch and share your news. Best wishes, Alex Law Harper Adams Club President BSc (Hons) Ag LFM 1999-2003, MSc REALM 2007-2008 SAVE THE DATE! Saturday 16 June 2018 It’s all happening at Harper Adams! ALUMNI OPEN DAY UNDERGRADUATE OPEN DAY FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS ALL WELCOME TO CELEBRATE … Starts at 9.30 am 40 Years of Engineering at Harper Adams HARPER ADAMS CLUB ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 1968 entry Golden reunion 10.30 am 1993 entry 25 year reunion 2006 entry 10 year reunion HARPER ADAMS CLUB REUNION LUNCH And … individual alumni guests, small meetings of friends or larger reunion groups. CAMPUS TOURS including our engineering centres - drop in with your friends and family. Please make sure we have your correct contact details so that we can send you more information nearer the time. Alumni Office 01952 815297, [email protected] HARPER-ADAMS.AC.UK 1 HANDS FREE HECTARE A WORLD FIRST AT HARPER ADAMS UNIVERSITY To achieve the ambitious project, the team modified existing machinery. A project specification was for the machines to be small in order to reduce the impact on soil health and biology. The combine used for the harvest had a header unit of only two metres. The Hands Free Hectare team believe that the future of farming will be managing fleets of small and autonomous vehicles, allowing farmers of the future to use their time for more effectively. Jonathan Gill said: “There has been a focus in recent years on making farming more precise, but larger machines are not compatible with this method of working. They are also so heavy that they are damaging farmers’ soils. If combines in the future were similar to the size of the machine we used in this project, a little Sampo combine, it would allow more precise yield maps to be created. Despite our combine being 25 years old, it performed absolutely wonderfully.” Preparations started in December 2016 when the team received an Iseki tractor and made it fully autonomous for the drilling, spraying and rolling of the hectare. By March 2017, the team Hands Free Hectare project autonomous vehicle. had made it over their first significant hurdle, when the tractor navigated the whole field sowing the spring barley crop in six hours. The pioneering Hands Free Hectare project has completed the Martin Abell explained, “The tractor is able to navigate the hectare world’s first autonomous harvest. The project run by Harper using an autopilot system for drones. This allows it to follow a pre- Adams University and Precision Decisions has successfully determined path in the field. It runs entirely on GPS and follows grown, tended and harvested a hectare of spring barley using only the requested route making its way between waypoints, digital autonomous vehicles and drones. GPS markers which we have positioned at the ends of the field It all started in October 2016 for the team of three engineers, for the tractor to navigate to. Our waypoints for the drilling also Jonathan Gill, Kit Franklin and Martin Abell and ended in September incorporated lifting and lowering signals that picked the drill up at 2017 with spectators watching the autonomous machine in one end and place it back down once it had turned around. The amazement as it combined the hectare. SimTech Aitchison drill is normally used for drilling between the 2 HARPER LIFE Anyone who is interested in the project and wants to help keep it alive for 2018, please get in contact with the Hands Free Hectare team. vines of vineyards to plant cover crops. It’s suited us perfectly as be perfect, which was amazing to see.” it’s a conventional agricultural system, just on a smaller scale” The team worked closely with their agronomist, monitoring the The sprayer system was a self-contained unit, independent of the crop remotely, using samples of the crop picked up by a drone tractor and employing a conventional sprayer controller. Safety fitted with a robotic grabber. The agronomist predicted a yield features included laser scanners to monitor the front of the tractor of 4.5 tonnes and on the day this target was achieved. It was a and stop it in the case of obstructions in its path. fantastic end for the team and they plan to make a Hands Free Hectare beer with the spring barley that has been harvested. They A mission control centre was also set up as a platform to see also hope to bring the project back by repeating the exercise, this the field in real time and supplement feedback from the robots time with a winter crop.