The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) of the United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) convened the Data Science in Agriculture Summit, October 10th 2016 in Chicago to identify the frontiers and future of data in agriculture and build on existing U.S. government wide-efforts and investments in Big Data. In addition to NIFA staff, experts in agriculture and data science fields converged to synthesize the future of data-driven agriculture and to help shape the agenda driving innovation in agricultural enterprises. Ali Fares, Interim Associate Director of Research, participated along with colleagues from other Land Grant Universities.
Sonny Ramaswamy, NIFA Director, was present during the summit and gave a talk titled “Cyber informatics and Tools Initiative.” He stressed the need for this initiative and the opportunities it presents to many players in this area including academic institutions.
Six breakout sessions were convened to answer important questions on next steps. It’s anticipated that NIFA will be funding researchers in this area, which presents an opportunity for entities across the PVAMU to collaborate on issues related to data science.
Ali Fares, Ph.D.
Interim Associate Director, Cooperative Agricultural Research Center
alfares@pvamu.edu
(936) 261-5019