Center for Digital Agriculture

RESEARCH

A primary goal of the Center is to foster interdisciplinary research projects that bring together faculty across The Grainger College of Engineering, ACES and others on campus to address fundamental challenges at the frontiers of computing, engineering, agriculture and food. Seed funding is being provided to foster new collaborative teams interested in forming long-term research projects with stable external funding. Two initial projects of the Center—the Digital Farm Infrastructure and the Agriculture Data Collaboratory—are intended to simplify and facilitate multidisciplinary research projects for all faculty, staff and students. Anyone interested in using either of these in their research should contact CDA via email. Companies interested in contributing technologies, expertise or personnel to either of these projects are encouraged to contact us as well.

ILLINOIS DIGITAL FARM INFRASTRUCTURE

The Illinois Digital Farm Infrastructure will be a flexible and customizable IoT toolkit that simplifies creation of instrumented, networked, semi-automated, and cloud-backed facilities for experimental research and for large-scale on-farm field trials. The toolkit will enable faculty and students to perform sensor-driven experiments, develop and test equipment, monitor the environment, raise animals and plants for data-intensive experiments, and support large-scale on-farm experimentation.

The Digital Farm Infrastructure will provide customizable, open hardware and software designs that enable extensive use of sensing, wireless communication, edge computing, and automation. As a result, the infrastructure will enable collaborative projects bringing together engineering researchers interested in developing and evaluating cutting-edge technologies with agriculturalists, food scientists, and biologists interested in exploring novel applications of these technologies.

DIGITAL AGRICULTURE DATA COLLABORATORY

The Digital Agriculture Data Collaboratory is a shared space located at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), where researchers from all disciplines in CDA will benefit from cutting-edge computer, networking, and visualization equipment, NCSA staff expertise, and synergy with other data-focused research projects. It will enable research in large-scale data storage, data sciences, and data-driven decision making for a wide range of problems.

The Digital Collaboratory will bring data science, machine learning, information retrieval, distributed systems, and high-end computing researchers together to explore applications of these technologies in agriculture, food sciences, genomics, and economic modeling and forecasting.

The collaboratory will also contribute to the NCSA data analytics service portfolio for its industry partners. CDA will partner closely with NCSA and the NCSA Industry Partners Program in developing the Digital Collaboratory resources and skills.

Close

About Cookies

Cookies and related technologies (herein “Cookies”) are small text files that a website saves on your computer when you visit the site. Cookies the University sets are called first-party Cookies. The data collected might be about you, your device, your preferences, or your login information. This data is mostly used to make the website work as expected so, for example, you don’t have to keep re-entering your credentials whenever you come back to the site. Cookies set by third parties are called third-party Cookies. We use third-party Cookies for analyzing website traffic and our advertising and marketing efforts. We have divided the Cookies we use into the following categories: Strictly Necessary, Performance, Functional, and Targeting. Under each category heading below you will find a general description of the Cookies in each category. You can change your browser settings to block, delete, or alert you to Cookies. The Help menu on the menu bar of most browsers will tell you how to do that. However, if you do, you may have to manually adjust preferences every time you visit a site and some features may not work as intended.

Read More…

Cookie Categories

Strictly Necessary Cookies are first-party Cookies that are necessary for the website to function. They can be either permanent or temporary and are usually only set in response to actions made directly by you that amount to a request for services, such as logging in or filling in forms. For example, we use Strictly Necessary Cookies to handle user registration and login. Some sites require the use of Strictly Necessary Cookies to access the site, such as University websites requiring University credentialed authentication. If you set your browser to block or delete Cookies, you may not be able to access the site or some parts of the site will not work.

Always Active

Performance Cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance and effectiveness of University websites. Performance Cookies also help the University understand which webpages are the most and least popular, see how visitors move around the site, and determine whether webpage content is relevant to user interests. Performance Cookies may be first-party or third party, permanent or temporary, and do not personally identify individual visitors. Some Performance Cookies are “analytics” Cookies (e.g., Google Analytics), using third-party software tools, which help us understand more about how our websites are used and where visitors come from by collecting and aggregating anonymous information on the pages visited and any advertisements viewed. The University does not take responsibility for the collection, use, and management of data by any third-party software tool provider unless required to do so by applicable law. If you set your browser to block or delete Cookies, some site services and functionalities may not work.

Always Active

Functional Cookies enhance the performance and functionality of our websites but are non-essential to their use. These permanent Cookies allow our website to remember information from your previous visits, such as details you submitted before or your previously stated preferences. These Cookies may also be used to provide services you request, such as newsletters or publications. They may be first- or third-party Cookies that enable services we have added to our webpages. If you set your browser to block or delete Cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.

Always Active

Targeting Cookies are used to deliver content tailored to your interests and may be temporary or permanent. They may also be first-party or third-party Cookies. Targeting Cookies are based on uniquely identifying your browser and device; they do not store information such as your name. The University may use targeting Cookies prepared by the University, its third-party contractors, or advertising partners to provide you with personalized University display advertising and promotional material about the University and its programs. The University may also allow third parties to place Cookies on your device that collect and use anonymous information about your visits to, and interactions with, our websites to personalize advertisements and promotional materials for University goods and services. Targeting Cookies may be used by our third-party contractors or our advertising partners to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. We may share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you have provided to them or that they have collected from your use of their services. If you set your browser to block or delete Cookies, you will still see advertisements, but they will be less targeted to your interests.

Always Active