By Scott Paton
Picture a Northern California vineyard, rows of grapevines bathed in morning fog, workers hand-thinning vines, exposing them to sunlight, and the slow rhythm of the seasons guiding each harvest. But unseen in that pastoral setting are the data pouring constantly from the vines, the earth and even the air. And those streams of information may become as essential to agriculture as irrigation and sunshine. Quietly powering the data analysis that makes all of this possible — is the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego’s School of Computing, Information and Data Science.
Across California, researchers, farmers, technologists and universities are launching a bold vision for the future of farming: “precision agriculture,” an approach that uses advanced sensors, networking and artificial intelligence to help growers make more informed decisions.
A new demonstration project at Iron Horse Vineyards, in Sonoma County, is showing how digital agriculture might work on a real farm. The initiative is being driven by CENIC (the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California), whose statewide high-speed research network brings advanced connectivity to institutions across the state. By linking Iron Horse directly to CENIC’s ultra-fast network, researchers can stream huge amounts of environmental and biological data in real time. SDSC then helps turn that raw information into practical insights.
And this collaboration — between a family-run vineyard, a statewide research network, and some of the world’s most powerful scientific computing resources — may help shape the future of agriculture across the nation.
A Vineyard Becomes a Living Laboratory
Iron Horse Vineyards, just outside Sebastopol, CA, is run by second-generation owner Joy Sterling, one of the country’s most outspoken advocates for bringing technology to America’s farms. Sterling recently served on a Federal Communications Commission task force examining the connectivity needs of modern agriculture and helped create recommendations to guide national policy.
Sterling’s vineyard is now serving as a living agricultural laboratory, working closely with CENIC, SDSC, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College, AT&T, Emergent and other partners. Together, they are building a testbed to study how environmental sensors, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing can improve crop yields while conserving water and protecting the land.
Source : ucsd.edu