BAE Go-Getter Ready for the Next Chapter
With a full-time role at John Deere ahead of him, Jeffrey Bradley, a biological and agricultural engineering technology major, is graduating from NC State after making the most of every opportunity.
Reading over a brochure while accompanying his older brother on a tour of NC State University, 13-year-old Jeffrey Bradley immediately knew where he wanted to go to college and what he wanted to major in.
When it was his turn to tour colleges a few years later, Bradley’s plan to major in biological and agricultural engineering technology (BAET) at NC State was reaffirmed when Heather Austin, a student services coordinator, mentioned something about getting to break tractors.
“When I heard that, I was all in,” Bradley jokes.
Now Bradley is graduating from the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) this spring with a bachelor’s degree and a broad range of skills to draw on, as he prepares to start his career with John Deere.
And as someone who loves to stay busy, Bradley has made the most of his four years as a member of the Wolfpack by using his spare time to explore all his interests, including conducting research, playing the tuba and helping teach a shop class.
Finding Community Spirit
Following in his dad’s footsteps, Bradley joined NC State’s Power Sound of the South marching band as a freshman. He remembers his dad talking about the feeling of being on the football field at Carter-Finely Stadium before the crowds filed in and the team took to the field.
He spent three years cheering on the Wolfpack from behind his tuba. “A favorite memory from [marching] band is probably when we beat Carolina in their own stadium,” Bradley says with a chuckle.
When he wasn’t playing the tuba, Bradley was searching high and low for hands-on experiences.
The summer after his freshman year, Bradley went home to work as an intern for NC Cooperative Extension in Edgecombe County. Working directly with agriculture Extension agents, Bradley contributed to N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative research trials that focused on studying insect patterns and their relationship with crops.
“Seeing how Extension agents work together, and how they interact with the community was a big takeaway for me,” he says.
When his summer internship ended, Bradley came back to campus in search of more opportunities to learn and grow . That led him to serve as a teaching assistant for BAET lecturer Tommy Stephenson’s Shop Processes and Management class in the spring of 2024.
Bradley enjoyed the class when he took it, so he thought he could be of some help with the hands-on aspect of the lab section.
“I enjoyed telling people how to make something work better for them and helping those who were struggling,” Bradley says.
From Concept to Creation
Like most students majoring in BAET, Bradley enjoys the process of fabrication and design. In 2024, he joined NC State’s Pack Pullers student design team. Serving as the ergonomics design lead, he oversaw the design process and prototypes for the operator controls, seat suspension system and driver interfaces. The ergonomics team is instrumental to improving safety, comfort and machine controllability across the overall tractor design and manufacturing process.
“The opportunity to design parts of the tractor with the Pack Pullers has given me insight into how each and every part within a system is carefully designed to fit each application,” he says.
Shifting gears, the summer before his junior year, he began assisting on tobacco mechanization research with Grant Ellington, BAE associate Extension professor and Pack Pullers advisor.
As an undergraduate applied researcher, Bradley worked directly with farmers to install and service tobacco barn climate-control systems that operators use to optimize tobacco curing efficiency.
“Jeffrey’s one of those students that you could tell him to do anything, get out of the way and trust it will be done right, ” Ellington says. “Regardless of the technology we were using, there were several software packages that I got him to learn and then teach me.”
Bradley spent time designing structured field tests, troubleshooting them in the field and analyzing 100+ hours of time-in-motion data on equipment efficiency.
“What is really unique is his vision; he can see the potential issues of a project far in advance,” Ellington says.
Now Bradley’s ready to apply all that he’s learned toward the next chapter of his life. After graduation, he will travel to Iowa to start his career as a build coordinator for John Deere.
It’s a challenge he’s ready for. “I have learned so much about the design and testing side of industry, and that will continue to be valuable as I go to work with John Deere.”
