This seminar is a hybrid event. REGISTRATION REQUIRED for Zoom: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/WgmrHpyBSriOSbRI5GYFxw
Despite the transformative potential of data, its application in agriculture remains limited- particularly in relation to accelerating innovation and delivering actionable, evidence-based, and producer-centered decision support tools powered by mechanistic models, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI). Realizing smart, data-informed food production systems depends on high-quality, standardized data and tools that translate data into meaningful insights. Our collaborative group aims to develop a framework that can guide creation of cooperatively owned and administered agricultural data repositories matched to the needs of specific stakeholder groups including farmers, researchers, and others interested in innovation, productivity and sustainability. This modular, scalable framework encompasses data governance (i.e., legal, economic, social and ethical dimensions) as well as confidential computing capabilities that integrate commitments to data privacy with commitments to FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). Our framework will result in making agricultural data ‘as open as possible and as closed as is necessary’. We focus on three agricultural domains as repository use cases: (1) management of insect pests and pathogens in specialty crops; (2) antimicrobial use and veterinary diagnostics in livestock; and (3) environmental markets that reward regenerative practices and ecosystem services. In the Applied Systems Ecology lab (Emery lab), we quantify the effects of climate change, land-use change and agricultural management on focal pest and predator populations in agroecosystems. We use historic insect monitoring data to deepen our understanding of pest patterns in agriculture and to understand the potential for ecological intensification, in which agroecosystems can be managed to enhance ecosystem service benefits. We also integrate novel data streams of satellite-based remote sensing, local and landscape intensification metrics in commercial fields with pest and predator community data. Using historic insect monitoring data we aim to identify the functional attributes of agricultural management and extreme weather events that contribute to pest outbreaks and those that lead to insect communities with stable biological control and higher resilience to disturbance events.
The Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture (CIDA), a faculty led initiative focused on creating a strong voice in the emerging area of Digital Agriculture (DA), invites Sara Emery to present her research for CIDA’s monthly seminar series.
Background on the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture:
An interdisciplinary group of Cornell University faculty began meeting in early 2017 to formulate an Initiative for Digital Agriculture, believing that Cornell is uniquely equipped to lead in this emerging arena that will benefit the public for generations. We define DA to mean the application of computational and information technologies coupled with nanotechnology, biology, systems engineering and economics to both the research and operational sides of agriculture and food production. With approximately 100 faculty from 5 Cornell colleges participating, we are collaborating with external stakeholders to shape and implement a research agenda for DA that will build a pipeline of discovery and innovations for the next 10+ years. Please contact Gabriela Cestero at gc423@cornell.edu with any questions