MSU joins $20 million AI initiative for the future of sustainable agriculture

August 26, 2020 - Matt Davenport

Michigan State University researcher Bruno Basso has a reputation for bringing ideas celebrated in the tech world to the farm field. The MSU Foundation Professor in earth and environmental sciences is no stranger to big data or artificial intelligence.

Today, however, he’s finding appreciation for a less technical concept he and his colleagues believe will play a central role in the future of digital agriculture: synergy.

Basso’s team at MSU is joining a $20 million initiative that brings together institutions across the country with the shared goal of using AI to lower costs and cultivate an even higher degree of sustainability on American farms. Dubbed the Artificial Intelligence for Future Agricultural Resilience, Management and Sustainability Institute, the effort was created by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

The AIFARMS Institute comprises more than 40 experts from various institutions and areas of expertise to confront critical issues facing farmers in the 21st century. Led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the institute has partners at MSU, University of Chicago, the Donald Danforth Plant Sciences Center, Tuskegee University, USDA Agricultural Research Service and Argonne National Laboratory.

“The strength of an institute like this is that it fosters collaboration to make breakthroughs,” said Basso. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

 

Read the full article at MSU Today.