wsu
WSU to lead national AI research institute for agriculture
The new institute is one of 11 launched by the National Science Foundation and among two funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture in 2021. It's called the AgAID Institute, which is short for USDA-NIFA Institute for Agricultural AI for Transforming Workforce and Decision Support. While traditional AI development involves scientists making tools and delivering them to end-users, the AgAID Institute will involve the people who will use the AI solutions--from farmers and workers to policy makers--in their development, said Ananth Kalyanaraman, a WSU computer science professor and the lead principal investigator for the Institute. "People are very much part of the agricultural ecosystem. Humans manipulate crops on a daily basis and make complex decisions, such as how to allocate water or mitigate the effects of an incoming storm," said Kalyanaraman, who also holds the Boeing Chair in WSU's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.