Lincoln, Nebraska, October 2016- The University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in partnership with the University of North Dakota, Iowa State University and Kansas State University, is participating in a multi-state, multi-institution Digital Agriculture Spoke grant of roughly $1 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The Midwest is vital to global agricultural production. This grant aims to foster collaborative relationships among various Midwestern agricultural and Big Data constituencies. The Midwest Big Data Hub Digital Agriculture Spoke will help collaborators across institutions to build partnerships to address emerging issues, such as precision agriculture, ecosystem management and services, socio-economic impacts and specific data-related issues.
“This project is important because working with Big Data can be very costly, so it’s critical to recognize shared challenges on a national level so we can share insights and resources,” said Jennifer L. Clarke, Director of the Quantitative Life Sciences Initiative and Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science and Technology and Department of Statistics. “The collaborations that result from this project will enable us to leverage Big Data to solve critical challenges related to sustainable agriculture and food security”.
Clarke will lead UNL efforts associated with the project, which focuses initially on two knowledge domains important to agriculture: unmanned aircraft systems and plant sciences. Automating Big Data lifecycles in unmanned aircraft systems in agriculture, plant sciences, phonemics and genomics is a key objective for the team. Information sharing, education and training at all levels will also be a priority.
The grant’s other co-PIs are as follows, in alphabetical order:
*Joe Colletti, Senior Associate Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University Natural Resource and Ecology Management; Colletti is the lead for the Digital Agriculture Spoke project within the BD Hub.
*Travis Desell, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, UND John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.
*Grant McGimpsey Vice President for Research & Economic Development and co-PI on the NSF award. Gimpsey also is Dean of the UND School of Graduate Studies.
*Gregory E. Monaco, Director for Research and Cyberinfrastructure Initiatives, Great Plains Network, and Research Associate Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University.
NSF awarded a total of $10 million total to 10 “Big Data Spokes” to initiate research on specific topics identified by the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs. Project topics range from precision agriculture to smart cities to personalized education. The data spokes reflect the unique priorities and capabilities of the four BD Hubs, which represent consortia from the Midwest, Northeast, South and West of the country.
"The BD Spokes advance the goals and regional priorities of each BD Hub, fusing the strengths of a range of institutions and investigators and applying them to problems that affect the communities and populations within their regions," said Jim Kurose, assistant director of NSF's Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate. "We are pleased to be making this substantial investment today to accelerate the nation's big data R&D innovation ecosystem."
The title of the UND-led project as follows: Digital Agriculture - Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Plant Sciences and Education.
For more information, visit http://midwestbigdatahub.org/about/working-groups/digital-agriculture-spoke/
Haley Steinkuhler, Media Specialist, IANR Media
See Also:
NSF: Connecting data scientists with regional challenges
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NSF awards $11 million to Big Data Spokes projects and associated planning activities... https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=189864