Wheeldon lab: The history of biotechnology spans thousands of years; however, before we can appeal to the modern definition, we must dissolve barriers among academic disciplines. The Plants 3D program offers a taste of this collaboration. Plants 3D also piqued my interest with potential insight into my current work on Aloe vera, a plant whose production practices are antiquated relative to most food crops. Modernization of Aloe and other crop production methods offers globally optimized land and resource utilization, becoming a necessary focus as the human population approaches ten billion. As an engineer, this program’s collaboration and training will be invaluable as we couple new scientific developments to industrial-scale deployments.