Noah Berning - Graduate Ag Research Spotlight
Autonomy is so new, especially in agriculture, that standardization has a long way to go. If my work could make some kind of contribution in someone’s safety journey, that would be really fulfilling.
- Noah Berning, Recent Master’s Alum in Agricultural Systems Management
The student
At 25, Noah Berning has already accomplished a goal held since middle school: he’s going to work for John Deere.
“I set this professional dream at 13 or 14,” he says. “It’s extremely fulfilling and makes me very thankful.”
Berning’s path to John Deere began in his hometown of Monroeville, Indiana, southeast of Fort Wayne,
population 1,300. Though his family was not directly involved in agriculture, he was heavily involved in FFA and 4-H, showing livestock throughout his childhood and serving as the Heritage FFA chapter president for three years. His mother had been an Indiana FFA state officer, and every June his family would travel to West Lafayette to attend the state convention.
“I fell in love with campus,” says Berning, a first-generation college grad. “It was always part of the plan to come here.”
When the time came to begin touring universities, Berning heard one of the College of Agriculture ambassadors who studied agricultural systems management (ASM) speak on their time working with John Deere. A family friend who also studied ASM at Purdue had gone to work at John Deere as well. The example and experiences that those two individuals shared made Berning realize that working at Deere was a realistic career path.
Berning arrived at Purdue in fall 2020 and majored in agricultural systems management and agricultural economics, with minors in food and agribusiness management, farm management and organizational leadership.
“I like to go a little above and beyond,” he says. “I started doing the ‘what if’ on myPurduePlan (a student resource for planning degrees) and started seeing how many classes I’d have to take.”
Despite the heavy load, Berning was selected as an outstanding student in agricultural and biological engineering every year. He was named outstanding senior in the College of Agriculture and won the prestigious France A. Córdova Leadership in Action Award. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA and began his master’s degree in fall 2024.
The research
Berning’s master’s research focused on how to make autonomous agricultural vehicles safer, a topic he became familiar with during one of his internships at John Deere. His thesis compared safety standards in autonomous machinery across the agricultural, automotive and earthmoving sectors to see how they differed, noting gaps that agriculture might need to fill.
As a graduate student, Berning made an effort to try things he hadn’t done as an undergrad.“I took classes I would have been a little scared to take in undergrad — coding, GIS, and also German for the past three semesters,” he says. “I wanted to expand my knowledge not only on the topic area in my study but also expand my ability and willingness to be a lifelong learner.”
Opportunities
Berning has attended multiple conferences and agricultural events, from the Farm Progress Show to the SaferAG conference. This summer, he’ll present findings from his master’s research at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) international conference in Indianapolis.
Berning has received immense support throughout his academic career, he says. “It’s crazy to think about all the help that I had here at Purdue — my graduate research committee, the faculty and staff in my department, among others.” He developed many close relationships during his internships, and several John Deere colleagues attended his master’s thesis defense.
Future plans
An avid Boilermakers basketball fan, Berning was a member of The Paint Crew and did not miss a home game as a graduate student. He enjoys golfing (“my score doesn’t always reflect that,” he says, laughing), loves sitcoms like “Cheers” and “The Office,” and is always up for a spontaneous road trip.
This summer, Berning started at John Deere in the marketing and customer support rotational program. This will involve two years of training rotations in various areas.
“My hope is to identify areas where safety standards have places to grow,” he says. “Autonomy is so new, especially in agriculture, that standardization has a long way to go. If my work could make some kind of contribution in someone’s safety journey, that would be really fulfilling.”
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