Digital Agriculture has been a core area of focus for the Midwest Big Data Hub since its inception.
Agriculture is broad, involving not only crops and animals, but also the ecosystems that support their growth and development as well as the myriad agricultural products that drive economies throughout the world. As the global population grows and our climate becomes increasingly variable, pressures on agricultural systems increase to expand productivity to address the demand for food, fiber, and energy. At the same time, how agricultural products are produced must be improved by reducing inputs, including pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, and fertilizers. Taken together, these pressures require us to discover, design, and invent new ways to improve agricultural production and the goods produced through agriculture. Solving complex agricultural problems involves a transdisciplinary approach involving expertise from engineering; data sciences; and plant, animal, and veterinary sciences across sectors, from academia to industry, and nongovernmental and governmental organizations.
Precision and digital agriculture (i.e., the application of data science to plant, animal, and veterinary sciences) stands poised to transform agricultural practices. One way to engage the broad expertise needed to address these problems is to make the data that describe ecosystems, crops, and animals more easily findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). In addition, it is imperative to train a data science workforce that will lead this transformation.
More information on MBDH activities around agriculture, food, and water:
Reshaping Agriculture in a Changing Climate with Insights from Predictive Analytics
By Shruti Gosain We’re in a time where technology is moving faster than ever. In an age of rapidly advancing technology, the intersection of data science, climate science, and agriculture is producing game-changing results. Predictive analytics, a cutting-edge approach to data-driven forecasting, is revolutionizing our ability to foresee and respond to the challenges posed by […]
From I, Robot to AIFARMS; AI Robotics for Sustainable Farming
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky The movie I, Robot came out in 2004, telling the story of a society in which a population of highly intelligent robots that worked public service positions to keep people safe became part of a dangerous conspiracy to enslave the human race. This fantastical, futuristic robot theme is one that was quite […]
Cultivating Change: Finding Answers with Sustainable Urban Farming
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky Most individuals native to Illinois would be shocked to hear that thousands of its residents reside in areas that are considered to be deserts. Not literal deserts, but rather food deserts, urban areas in which it is difficult to buy good-quality or affordable food. Although food deserts aren’t covered by dry sand […]
New NSF Awards to Accelerate Food and Nutrition Security
By Aisha Tepede Since 1951, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been awarding academic institutions across the U.S. the opportunity to develop research projects. More recently, the Foundation has taken a new approach to build upon basic research and discovery to accelerate solutions toward societal impact. The NSF’s Convergence Accelerator program enables universities and nonacademic […]
New working group focused on interoperability of agricultural data
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky In the face of increasingly challenging climate issues and an ever-growing population, digitization has played a large role in agriculture improvement throughout the years. Innovative technologies such as robotic systems, moisture and temperature sensors, and semiautonomous aviation systems have all revolutionized standard agriculture practices. Consequently, the increase in digital agriculture has led […]
Unmanned Aerial Systems, Plant Sciences and Education (UASPSE) Project Featured in Special Section of Agronomy Journal
The Digital Agriculture community of the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) achieved a major milestone this week with a series of open-access publications on ag data. The Unmanned Aerial Systems, Plant Sciences and Education (UASPSE) project, funded by an award from the National Science Foundation’s Big Data Spokes program (NSF award 1636865), wrapped up […]
New Precision Agriculture Initiatives in the Midwest
By Raleigh Butler Recently, there has been a large amount of U.S. federal funding directed toward next-generation precision-agriculture initiatives. This article summarizes a few such projects based in the Midwest. I-FARM A new project called I-FARM was recently awarded funding by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in May 2022 under the […]
Building an accessible agricultural data community with the National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative
By Raleigh Butler Entities around the world gather data focused on various aspects of agriculture. Unfortunately, this information is not always accessible or easily available for those who need it. The National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative (NAPDC) project recognizes that agriculture is a keystone of society and a critical piece of national solutions to climate-related […]
New MBDH Community Development and Engagement partners
By Qining Wang The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) recently partnered with multiple institutions in the region for new data science activities under its Community Development and Engagement Program. This program incubates new projects and provides support to help them grow. In the last proposal cycle, the MBDH Seed Fund Steering Committee selected three […]
Agroterrorism: Cybersecurity Incidents Affect Agriculture and Water
By Raleigh Butler You may not think that agriculture and cybersecurity, both themes of the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub, are linked, but recent events demonstrate there are connections between the two that pose risks to our food security. The “food and agriculture” industry is publicly defined as a critical infrastructure sector by the U.S. […]
Climate Change Affecting Crops in Iowa
By Raleigh Butler In 2010, the University of Minnesota received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study climate change using data-driven methods. The project included Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub co-PI Shashi Shekhar and a team of researchers from across the country. The research led, in part, to explorations of connections between food, […]
UASPSE – BDSpokes Project Website Online
The website for the MBDH BDSpokes project – “Digital Agriculture: Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Plant Sciences, and Education (UASPSE)” is now online. Login with your LinkedIn account to join the UASPSE community.
Machine Learning: Farm-to-Table Workshop
by Keith Hollenkamp – In April, the MBDH teamed up with the International Food Security at Illinois (IFSI) to host the Machine Learning: Farm-to-Table Workshop. The workshop brought together domain scientists to stimulate new data-driven R+D activity at the intersections of the Agriculture, Bioinformatics, Food-Energy-Water, and Food Security communities.
Iowa State University Summer Seminar Series: Plant Phenomics Phridays
Sponsored by the Midwest Big Data Hub Digital Agriculture Spoke Award and the Iowa State University Plant Sciences Institute, Plant Phenomics Phridays is a brand new Summer seminar series hosted by Iowa State University.
The Machine Learning: Farm-To-Table Workshop
The Midwest Big Data Hub (MBDH) is partnering with the International Food Security at Illinois (IFSI) group at UIUC to bring together domain scientists from the Agriculture, Bioinformatics, Food-Energy-Water, and Food Security communities, along with computational experts. The objective of this workshop is to stimulate new data-driven R+D activity at the intersections of these communities. The meeting will be […]
Food and Data Workshop: Interoperability through the Food Pipeline
September 12-13, 2016 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The increasing ability to capture data at the level of individual agricultural fields, individual culinary recipes, and individual food waste digesters is allowing analytics-based optimization within the distinct industries responsible for producing, transporting, trading, storing, processing, packaging, wholesaling, retailing, consuming, and disposing of food. Yet addressing the […]
Digital Agriculture Spoke All-Hands Meeting – May 16-17, 2016
Videos of the presentations are now available! The 2016 Digital Agriculture Spoke All-Hands Meeting to be held on May 16-17 at the Scheman Building, Iowa State Center, Ames, Iowa. The Digital Agriculture Spoke of the Midwest Big Data Hub is devoted to building partnerships and resources that will address emerging Big Data issues in the […]