Upcoming Seminar: "Computational Agriculture: An Opportunity for Saskatchewan"
Dr. Ian Stavness will be speaking on January 31 as part of the Advancements in Agricultural Research Seminar Series.
The College of Agriculture and Bioresources presents a new seminar series, Advancements in Agricultural Research. The series features AgBio faculty and research chairs, highlighting research conducted in the college. The seminars are free and open to everyone.
Date: January 31, 3pm
Location: Zoom
Speaker: Dr. Ian Stavness
Topic: Computational Agriculture: An Opportunity for Saskatchewan
Abstract
Digital data has improved the effectiveness of agricultural R&D and the efficiency of farm operations in Saskatchewan and across Canada. Computational agriculture goes a step further than “digital agriculture” to perform large-scale computations with large agricultural datasets to generate predictions, forecasts and data-driven decisions.
The next generation of computational agriculture tools and apps have potential to dramatically increase farm profitability, resiliency and sustainability over the next decade. Saskatchewan is well-positioned to lead-the-charge in this growing area, but requires two important inputs: talented people and large datasets.
In this talk, I will introduce the new NSERC CREATE Training Program in Computational Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, which aims to tackle the first challenge of creating a talent pipeline of trail-blazing individuals who can push the boundaries at the interface of computer science and plant science. I will also argue for the need for a Saskatchewan Agricultural Data Strategy to harvest, protect and share the valuable and growing data resources generated by Saskatchewan farms, companies and research institutions for the benefit of the entire Saskatchewan Agriculture sector.