A group of faculty and researchers are launching the UC Santa Cruz AgTech Alliance, a campus community that will bring together people interested in ethical and responsible agricultural technology for a sustainable future in the face of climate change.
Building on the long history of innovation in agriculture at the campus, the AgTech Alliance will support research, education, events, and workforce development related to advancing agricultural technology in order to create more formalized opportunities for collaboration within the university and beyond.
“We believe that emerging technologies have the potential to dramatically reshape the agri-food system,” said Colleen Josephson, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and one of the new initiative’s inaugural directors. “The UC Santa Cruz AgTech Alliance is bringing together an interdisciplinary community of researchers, extensionists, engineers, activists, farmers, students, and others to help lead that transformation in a positive direction, through innovation, education, research, and empowerment.”
The AgTech Alliance leadership draws from Baskin Engineering and the Social Sciences Division, but welcomes all researchers, engineers, farmers, students, and other stakeholders interested in pursuing activities under the broad umbrella of agriculture technology. The Alliance reflects a deeply embedded culture at UCSC of interdisciplinary research, pairing scholars focused on the technical possibilities of innovation with those critically examining potential societal implications. Anticipating the impacts on producers, workers, and consumers is an essential step in developing new agricultural technology.
“The interdisciplinary nature of this initiative is one of the things that makes it special,” noted Social Sciences Division Dean Katharyne Mitchell. “Building ethical technology for tomorrow will require learning lessons from agriculture’s checkered past, developing trusted partnerships with stakeholder communities, and charting a path that addresses both social and environmental needs. Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for that process, yet it is often undervalued.”
The inaugural directors of the AgTech Alliance are Colleen Josephson, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Gregory Gilbert, Professor of Environmental Studies, who are both UCSC Agriculture Experiment Station (AES) Agronomists. The Alliance will be administered by Baskin Engineering as a program under the UCSC branch of The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS).
“Developing agricultural technology calls for a creative, interdisciplinary, and ethics-centered approach, and I know our researchers are up to that challenge,” said Alexander Wolf, Dean of the Baskin School of Engineering. “With vast farmlands just to the south, and a wealth of potential technical partners to the north in nearby Silicon Valley, we are poised for great impact both in our own community and beyond.”
The AgTech Alliance will take advantage of the campus’ physical location, which bridges regions leading the technological trajectory of the world and leading agricultural production in the United States. The campus is also home to the Center for Agroecology and an officially designated University of California Agricultural Experiment Station, strengths that the new AgTech Alliance intends to draw upon in order to build relationships with local growers and connect them to relevant research projects.
“The AgTech Alliance will provide cohesion to an exciting network of cross-divisional research collaborators that we’ve been building in this specific topic area over the last several years with help from many different units across campus,” explained Environmental Studies Professor Gregory Gilbert, an inaugural director of the alliance. “We hope that our new formalized structure will help us continue to grow as community-engaged researchers.”
AgTech Alliance-affiliated researchers have a range of expertise, from agro-robotics to greenhouse technologies to aquaculture, and much more. Current projects include an engineering and environmental studies collaboration to build better leaf wetness sensors to prevent crop diseases, and another interdisciplinary effort to better understand the global carbon cycle using advanced imaging and modeling.
The group will also work together in the coming years to expand education on agricultural technology at UC Santa Cruz by integrating it into existing classes and exploring the potential development of new academic offerings. Beyond the classroom, they plan to work with student clubs and community organizations through events and meaningful engagement.
The group is actively seeking funding to help with administrative costs, hosting events, and possible future grant support for student and faculty researchers.
The advisory board includes Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Madeleine Fairbairn,
UC ANR Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension Specialist Crystele Leauthaud, Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics Javier Gonzalez-Rocha, Professor of Environmental Studies and Faculty Director of Greenhouses Michael Loik, Professor of Computer Science Engineering and Campus Director of CITRIS at UC Santa Cruz Katia Obraczka, Distinguished Professor of Politics and AES Agronomist Matthew Sparke, and Executive Director of the Center for Agroecology Darryl Wong.
The AgTech Alliance will host a kickoff event on February 27 for interested parties to meet and learn more about active research areas. The event is open for anyone who has an active affiliation with UC Santa Cruz. RSVPs are requested, but drop-ins are welcome.
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