Advanced BioFuels USA

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Leyla Battista, a senior biosystems engineering student at Auburn University, took advantage of an extraordinary opportunity to attend and speak at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference (ABLC) Friday in Washington, DC.  This annual gathering of hundreds of international leaders, C-level business executives and federal agency staff convenes to talk about pressing current issues and outlooks for the future of the bioeconomy.

Advanced Biofuels Summit panel lead by Gary Scoggins, EnerSystNet Canada, at lectern, with from left Luc Mathis, Global Bioenergies, Leyla Battista, CABLE/Auburn University; John Hannon, Vertimass and Will Thurmond, Emerging Market Online

Battista’s session was part of the Advanced Biofuels Summit track where she discussed Auburn students’ lack of knowledge of the Renewable Fuel Standard, apparent support for its basic objectives and how to bridge that gap. She represented a team of CABLE students interested in bioeconomy policy issues including Alex Vore (West Virginia University), Shehan Navaranthe (North Dakota State University) and John Johnson (North Carolina State University).

As part of a US Department of Agriculture-funded Consortium for Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership & Education (CABLE) Program, led by Ohio State University and supported by Biofuels Digest, the team chose the following objectives: Analyze the Renewable Fuel Standards, examine available resources and awareness levels of college students.  The deliverables they decided to create were:

• Provide objective fact based resources aimed at increasing understanding among policymakers and the general public
• Gain an understanding of the best methods by which to reach young audiences
• “Fast Facts” sheet, PowerPoint presentation, and project website

These materials are part of her presentation available here.

As a nonprofit educational organization, Advanced Biofuels USA celebrates opportunities for students to mingle with leaders in policy and industry and enjoys encouraging programs that enable such hands-on experiential education.

For CABLE, Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) is overseeing a three-year $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to create a consortium of 20 participating universities and industry partners. The project’s goal is to train 60 students over three years in the area of biobased technology to increase the number of students pursuing leadership positions in bioeconomy-related careers, he said. Those jobs include chemical and mechanical engineers; biochemists; agricultural engineers; genetic engineers and scientists; and regulation compliance workers, among others.

Battista especially thanked Eric McAfee, CEO of Aemetis, for sponsoring her participation at ABLC and Jim Lane, Biofuels Digest publisher, for putting her on the agenda at the conference.

As often happens, insights arise not necessarily from the formal educational program, but from ancillary moments.  For Battista, a surprise and disheartening insight came as she conducted the “flash” 3-question survey on the college grounds. She had almost no response for the first two hours.  After bringing her dog and putting a sign on the free candy, she had nearly 200 participants in the next two hours.  As she described this part of her experience during her presentation, its ubiquitousness became apparent as someone in the audience noted that pizza works, too.

Their conclusions about how to reach young audiences identified the need for:

■Objective resources
■Increased education initiatives
■Initiatives geared towards the preferences of young audiences
■Constructive use of social media
■Keeping Facebook and Twitter up to date and active
■Making material “approachable”
■Free food and other comforting distractions

The goals of CABLE seem to be met in Battista who noted during her presentation that her team’s research, work on the materials and her experiences at ABLC have led her to rethink her career path, intent that it include the bioeconomy.

See Ohio State Leads Effort to Prep Students for Biobased Careers  for more information about CABLE.

*Joanne Ivancic serves as the executive director of Advanced Biofuels USA.

Photos: JIvancic