The agriculture industry faces tremendous pressure to increase crop production and yields to meet future consumer demand for food. This problem is compounded by population growth, limited natural resources, unpredictable weather, the requirement of sustainability, and climate change. In an effort to make farms more productive, growers are increasingly turning to environmental measurements and data analysis. Computing systems can automate this process--facilitating faster problem diagnosis, more accurate outcome prediction, and proactive decision making. Unfortunately, to date, such systems have received little attention from the computer science research community and extant solutions are proprietary, complex, costly, or not widely available.
Our aim is to leverage advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) as part of a holistic system called SmartFarm. By integrating environmental sensor technologies, SmartFarm will provide growers with a secure, easy to use, low-cost data analysis and visualization system. The end result will be data-informed decisions that lead to increased productivity.
Dr. Chandra Krintz is a Professor of Computer Science at UCSB and the Chief Scientist at AppScale Systems. Dr. Krintz holds MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from UC San Diego. Her research interests include programming systems, cloud and big data computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT). She has supervised and mentored over 60 students, has published work in a wide range of top venues, is the recipient of multiple teaching and research awards, and has led several educational and outreach programs that introduce computer science to young people.