A team of Mississippi State faculty has been awarded a $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant to build the workforce needed to support resilient rural energy infrastructure.
The grant establishes the cross-disciplinary initiative Smart Agriculture Energy Innovation Network, or SAGEIN.
“This investment has the potential to make a meaningful difference in rural communities by supporting systems that improve energy reliability, reduce operational costs and create new revenue opportunities for farmers and landowners, and, through hands-on research experience, it will prepare our students to be more than just job ready,” said principal investigator Tonya Stone, an associate professor in MSU’s Michael W. Hall School of Mechanical Engineering.
Joining Stone are co-principal investigators Carley Morrison, School of Human Sciences; Jay McCurdy, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences; and Gang Li and Jian Zhao, Hall School of Mechanical Engineering. Other core participants on the project include Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station scientists Leyla Rios de Alvarez, assistant professor, animal and dairy sciences; Jesse Morrison, associate research professor, plant and soil sciences; Xiaofei Li, associate professor, agricultural economics; IDEELab Director Dalton “Ross” Smith, assistant professor of practice, mechanical engineering; and John Davis, program manager, Industrial Training and Assessment Center.
Source : msstate.edu