In the last year, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu, swept through chicken coops across the nation, killing egg-laying hens and contributing to rising egg prices. The outbreaks underscored how vulnerable food systems can be to rapidly spreading biological threats and how urgently new predictive tools are needed to help producers respond.
That’s why the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) partnered with The University of Texas at Arlington to develop solutions through the Smart Agriculture Research Center (SARC), a new research hub using artificial intelligence and data science to tackle agriculture’s most pressing challenges.
“Agriculture is essential to society, yet it has historically seen less AI integration than other industries,” said Jianzhong Su, professor of mathematics and co-director of SARC. “UTA has tremendous strength in technology and data science, and that positions us to help modernize agriculture in Texas and beyond.”
Opened in August 2025, SARC serves the entire UTA campus through four core pillars: providing AI capacity and data discovery tools for agriculture research projects; serving as a resource hub for faculty pursuing agriculture-related research; securing major USDA and external training and center grants; and serving as UTA’s institutional gateway for external partners focused on sustainability and global environmental impact. Dr. Su and Co-Director Gautam Das, professor of computer science and engineering, work together with more than 20 faculty members in science and engineering.
On Feb. 9, the center hosted a grand opening that included UTA and USDA officials.
Source : uta.edu