So we know that agriculture is a complex environment and
UC Davis is one of the best places in the world because we have the expertise in engineering
Computer science and biology that's needed to really pull this off and to make novel innovative solutions for agriculture
We get to take our equipment from the lab to the field in less than a mile
And we get to test it on site and we can do modifications within a day
Farmers are facing a number of challenges. We currently have a labor shortage in agriculture
We have a lot of problems with pests and diseases
We know that we're facing a changing climate and a lot of competition internationally,
so farmers are under a number of pressures to be able to provide food for the nation
Smart Farm is an initiative designed to address these needs
So all of agriculture is based on some form of labor that crops that we grow are incredibly labor intensive and in the last ten years
the asset of labor has drastically changed not just in the United States, but worldwide
Smart Farm is going to benefit a number of individuals from consumers who will benefit from having a
nutritious and plentiful food supply to farmers who will help be more sustainable and competitive Internationally
as well as people in rural communities will enable them to have stem career paths in agriculture
So imagine a number of robots and other technologies that can be monitoring plants and animals in the field
Understand their needs and be able to deliver the care they require to perform to their ultimate.
For hands on learning, I've been able to do a lot of field work, which I didn't think I'd be able to do
I get to create things. I get to program. I get to interact with everybody
I get to interact with people from everywhere basically
And I get to show them how to use engineering techniques and technology
that we actually get to create and they get to see how we can actually make their lives a lot better
I've been in the shop working on the spider
In the next couple weeks we'll be going out to the field doing field testing
And then after that I'll be taking the data that we worked on in the field and processing it
So I'm like there for every step of the way, which is amazing
One of the fun and interesting things that's happening in agriculture today
is the ability to capture more data
And as we capture that data, we're turning to people that are data scientists at the university
to help us to be able to make much better decisions
data based rather than intuitive based and that is making a
humongous difference in agriculture in a very short period of time
So what I find most inspiring about Smart Farm is the possibility of using technology to amplify care
Smart Farm has the possibility to give us tools to
Monitor the animals and the environment more closely and have feedback in real-time
about what's happening and these types of tools provide the opportunity to
improve both animal welfare and our management of the environments in which we which we farm
As we analyze agriculture going forward in the very short term and the resources becoming more and more scarce
We are looking to UC Davis to help us come up with solutions that is not going to replace labor
It's to replace certain types of labor; stoop labor, continuous motion labor
With technology that will make that labor more efficient
So we're taking a holistic approach because we want to have all
people involved in farming benefit from the innovations that we envision
So we have benefits to the farmer because we're going to be able to provide
automation technology to eliminate a lot of the problems they have with labor shortages
but we're also going to be developing career paths such as
flying UAVs and other kinds of robotic technologies
that people will maintain and operate so it would be high tech jobs that we're creating in agriculture
to benefit both people in rural communities as well as people who are producing the food
