Tennessee Tech dedicates Randall and Marjorie Warden Agriculture Innovation Center
Tennessee Tech University recently welcomed students, alumni, administrators and community leaders at the dedication of a new facility designed to prepare students for the rapidly evolving future of agriculture: the Randall and Marjorie Warden Agriculture Innovation Center.
Located at Shipley Farm, the university’s 300-acre working, teaching and research farm just minutes from Tech’s main campus, the 10,000-square-foot center will serve as a hub for hands-on learning at the intersection of agriculture and advanced technology.
The facility will support instruction, research and workforce training not only for students in Tech’s School of Agriculture, but also for visiting high school classes, professional agriculturalists and others across the Upper Cumberland region and beyond.
Randall Warden, one half of the building’s namesake, is a 1976 graduate of Tech’s School of Agriculture who went on to become a renowned leader in the soil testing industry. He and his wife, Marjorie, made a landmark gift to fund the building’s construction. In recognition of their generous support, the Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees previously voted to name the facility in their honor.
“This is a great occasion,” said Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham at the dedication ceremony. “I want to personally thank the Wardens for their generosity and their support. I hope you’re proud. I want to congratulate everybody whose vision has played a part in making this happen.”
Oldham went on to explain the cutting-edge technologies that would be deployed in the center.
“Technologies like robotic harvesting, robotic weeding, autonomous tractors and smart farming will be brought to bear in this new building,” said Oldham. “The building will also be used to develop virtual reality programs for agriculture education.”
Darron Smith, dean of the College of Agriculture and Human Ecology, called the center’s
dedication “a great day for the School of Agriculture.”
“We can’t thank Randall and Marjorie enough for this,” added Smith. “It’s amazing to me, in my career in agriculture, where we’ve gone from straight farming and feed buckets to this high-tech smart farming. We as Tennessee Tech University want to be the leader in that arena, and that’s what makes this building so important.”
The School of Agriculture at Tennessee Tech, which is part of the College of Agriculture and Human Ecology, enrolled more than 330 students at the start of the fall 2025 semester and has experienced four consecutive years of enrollment growth.
Alongside Smith, the school’s leadership team includes James Baier, assistant dean of the College of Agriculture and Human Ecology, and Jinfa Zhang, director of the School of Agriculture.
The school offers more than a dozen programs of study, including agribusiness management, animal science, horticulture and agricultural engineering technology, and plays a key role in preparing a skilled agricultural workforce for the region and state. Learn more at www.tntech.edu/agriculture.