This project aims to advance the science informing anticipatory workforce development programs in American agriculture. The program has the potential to increase rural adult learners' confidence in digital technologies. It also has the potential to cultivate capacities and skills for developing, using, and re-using Open Access Digital Agriculture technologies. Digital technologies have become a vital element of the successful operation of farms. Open systems enable agriculturalists to adapt digital systems to their specific operational requirements, business configurations, and the environment. This project addresses the desire of farmers and farm managers to take ownership of the software and hardware systems they operate daily. Through convergent research between engineering, the social sciences, and the learning sciences, this project explores three questions. First, what viable configurations of open access agricultural systems can be deployed at different scales of farming? Second, can hands-on informal learning delivered to agriculturalists at their place of work increase comfort with using digital agricultural technologies? Third, by creating immersive learning opportunities to pair students with agriculturalists through partnerships with Cooperative Extension, can we reduce barriers to underrepresented students in STEM curricula? This project will investigate the theories, methods, and tools for understanding how convergent research fields develop, are negotiated, and ultimately create new domains of inquiry.
This project will investigate new configurations of open access sensors, standards, systems, and methods of data collection analysis. These will be informed by practicing agriculturalists' understanding of digital technologies. Agriculturalist experiential data will be collected via a series of interviews with small/micro, medium, and large growers. This data will be supplemented by existing data sources on technology trends in agriculture throughout Georgia. These agriculturalists will play a critical role in developing an online curriculum for digital agriculture skills. The design of the curriculum will be scalable and deployable via the Cooperative Extension system. Undergraduate students will work with agriculturalists across the State of Georgia to develop these modules. Augmented and virtual reality technologies will be deployed to enhance the approachability and ultimately the comfort of agriculturalists with digital agriculture technologies. These educational opportunities will be supported by the development and deployment of a mobile performance computing and makerspace facility. This will enable agriculturalists to engage with digital agriculture technologies and data science within the context of their working environments and real-life problems. This is an essential modality for highly effective adult education programming. The mobile facilities will be deployed throughout the State of Georgia. They will deliver on-site programming and adapt programming to meet the needs of specific agricultural operations and co-designing open access sensor networks. They will incorporate the prototyping of parts via 3-D printing, as well as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other needs that emerge during the project. The results of this study will leverage information gleaned from the open-source digital agriculture problem area as a model for understanding the emergence of convergent research fields and future knowledge domains.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
