Nicholas Uilk: Nurturing the Next Generation of Precision Professionals
A passion for precision technology has earned South Dakota State University Professor Nicholas Uilk the 2021 Educator/Research Award from the PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence.
Editor’s note: The annual PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence were presented at the inaugural Tech Hub LIVE conference in Des Moines this week. Below we profile Nicholas Uilk, winner of the Educator/Research Award.
A dedication to teaching and a passion for precision technology has earned South Dakota State University Professor Nicholas Uilk the 2021 Educator/Research Award from the PrecisionAg Awards of Excellence, sponsored by the PrecisionAg Alliance.
The results of Uilk’s efforts in putting into practice the simple saying – “Don’t just show me, tell me – speak for themselves. Thanks to his work to create a precision agriculture emphasis within the Agricultural Systems Technology degree program at South Dakota State University, coupled with his excellent teaching and student connections, enrollment in the program more than tripled within five years after his hiring, according to Dr. Van Kelley, Head of the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department at SDSU.
“Nic Uilk is one of the most skilled and appreciated instructors on the South Dakota State University campus. We are fortunate that he is passionate about teaching students the precision agriculture skills they will need to help farmers be more profitable or to be successful farmers themselves,” Kelley, his nominator. “Nic is our first choice when we need to find a faculty member to meet with prospective precision agriculture students and their family during a campus visit.”
Uilk’s most significant innovation, Kelley says, was convincing the university to purchase eight Kubota UTVs and then securing industry support to outfit each machine with Raven GPS and autosteer. This allows 16 students at a time to get many hours of “seat time” running and troubleshooting actual precision ag equipment so they are ready to do this in the industry. Students get to perform and analyze many different field operations such as driving a field sprayer across paper test strips or operating four different-brand planters side by side to compare performance of set-up adjustments using these custom machines.
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“It’s not just knowing how to punch the buttons,” Uilk says. “We want to connect the equipment to what they’re learning in the classroom: understanding the different types of GPS, how to set up the system, what the calibration numbers are telling them, and how it affects the system. The goal is to connect the lecture to lab – the classroom to the field.”
Uilk, who grew up on a traditional corn and soybean farm in southwestern Minnesota, says he stays on top of developments in the fast-changing precision agriculture space by talking to companies and getting out to industry shows like Tech Hub LIVE, InfoAg, and the National Farm Machinery Show as often as he can.
“Being in communication with the industry has been important to me since the day I started — to stay on top of what’s being utilized out there, and make sure students are aware of new products and how to best utilize them in production ag for their someday customers.”
At the same time, the fundamentals of precision agriculture are always there. “In the ‘90s when Al Myers came out with the first yield monitor, they used GPS to georeference locations in the field. In 2021, we use GPS to georeference locations in the field. There are different options on what GPS to use, but we teach to those fundamentals,” Uilk tells PrecisionAg.
He names Van Kelley as among his most important mentors and biggest supporters: “He really understood the value of getting students interacting with the equipment. My idea (to purchase the Kubotas) happened because of him, because he had to push it up the line.
“The first time I met (CropLife Editor) Paul Schrimpf, they were having an event in Kansas City. I told Van I wanted to take students to this event to get our students interacting with industry. He loved the idea and lined up the university airplane. We loaded five students on the plane, and left two hours before it started,” he says. “Anything he can do to promote a better education for our graduates he is in favor of.”
This fall, SDSU will reach yet another milestone as it holds its ribbon-cutting for a new Raven Precision Ag Center. Uilk’s efforts played a strong role in reaching this point, despite his modest refusal to take credit.
“I like to think we are leaders in the hands-on precision ag experience for students,” he says, adding, “SDSU has been awesome – it’s been support from the top down. I always say a team is only as good as their coach. That is definitely true for me. I am just happy to be here.”
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