Agricultural Engineer
Chris is an agricultural engineer. After graduating from college with a bachelor's degree, he spent some time working overseas on irrigation systems in developing countries. He then returned home and took the qualifying exam to become a Professional Engineer. He now works for the Department of Agriculture. He specializes in water conservation and designing irrigation systems that can help farmers to cope with dry periods and to grow crops more efficiently.
His day begins with a phone call to an experimental farm that he will be visiting next week. Although he spends most of his time in the office, Chris does sometimes get to travel and see his designs in action. He has been developing a system that will help reduce water loss from an inexpensive irrigation system, and he needs to check how it is working in the field in order to refine his design. If it has been successful, it could help farmers across the world to increase their crop yields.
After answering some emails, Chris begins to think about a new project that he is about to start. He will be designing a system for irrigation in greenhouses, which needs to be as efficient as possible. After reading through some reports and research on the subject, Chris begins to sketch out a few ideas and make some calculations. He will need to gather more information before he can come up with a full design. He joins some other members of his team to discuss the greenhouse irrigation project, and develop some more specific ideas.
During the afternoon, Chris gathers together some feedback he has received from farmers using one of his irrigation systems. He analyzes the changes in crop production that they have experienced and is very pleased with the results. He had spent a long time on that project, as it involved designing a system to irrigate fields in a steep and mountainous area. Although the system worked when it was tested, he is glad to find out that it is actually working for real farmers.
