Source: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON submitted to
DEVELOPING AN ALLIANCE FOR TRAINING AND APPRENTICESHIP IN CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE (DATA-AG)
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1027782
Grant No.
2022-67037-36259
Cumulative Award Amt.
$500,000.00
Proposal No.
2021-09709
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Nov 1, 2021
Project End Date
Oct 31, 2025
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[A7601]- Agricultural Workforce Training Grants
Project Director
Su, J.
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON
400 S CORN ST
ARLINGTON,TX 76019
Performing Department
Office of Grant and Contract S
Non Technical Summary
As the nation's population becomes increasing urbanized, how do urban universities build academic pathways for students to pursue career in agriculture fields? We introduce and prepare US citizen students among community colleges and under-represented minority groups to pursue agriculture careers, with objectives in 1) Expanding and Improving Workforce Training through Student Engagement, 2) Curriculum Development and Faculty Preparation, and 3) Building Regional Hispanic Serving Institution Alliance for Agriculture. We enhance the system for agriculture workforce development through activities including faculty workshop, climate-smart agriculture symposiums, USDA NRCS apprentice program, and online introductory modules and recruit and serve students and faculty to participate onsite and through online curriculum learning over the grant period. The primary participants of this project are community college students. Three Hispanic Serving Institutions University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico State University, their community college partners, and USDA National Resource Conservation Service partners will collaborate closely, introduce agriculture curriculum for students on community college campuses either face-to-face or remotely that enables students for industry-recognized credential attainment. Areas cover agriculture data analytics, data-driven natural resource conservation and agricultural planning. The broad impacts of this project will result in enhancement of a pipeline of urban community college students to pursue career pathways in agriculture fields, increased diversity of agriculture workforce, increased human capital to serve under-represented and under-served communities in Texas, New Mexico and beyond.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
8067410208070%
1320420209030%
Knowledge Area
806 - Youth Development; 132 - Weather and Climate;

Subject Of Investigation
0420 - Weather; 7410 - General technology;

Field Of Science
2090 - Statistics, econometrics, and biometrics; 2080 - Mathematics and computer sciences;
Goals / Objectives
This project will address NIFA's goals of Agriculture systems and technology; Bioenergy, natural resources, and environment, and Agriculture economics and rural communities by increasing the number and diversity of students, enhancing student experience, and create technology data-savvy workforce. Educational activities will include but not limited to: Curriculum Development, Instructional Delivery Systems, and Faculty Development in STEM and Agriculture Science Education, and Experiential Learning and Internship areas covers agriculture data analytics, sustainable agriculture and agricultural logistic planning. The broad impacts of this project will result in a pipeline of urban community college students that will become data-savvy and technology-savvy, increasing diversity of the workforce, and increasing human capital to serve under-represented and under-served communities in Texas and New Mexico. The target objectives listed below contain more detail:Objective 1. Expanding and Improving Workforce Training through Student Engagement a) Job-based, experiential learning experiences and methods to extend learning beyond the classroom; faculty at all three institutions and USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) scientists and engineers have expertise; and at least 200 students and faculty mainly fromcommunity colleges and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) will learn firsthand about data and technology driven agriculture through presentation, demonstration and panel discussion in annual symposiums; b) Recruiting and mentoring 9 US students in 3 years through apprenticeship in NRCS, agricultural-data research and mentoring and to successfully complete their degree; c) Seminars by USDA researchers and industry expert to provide up-to-date research and development information; Introduction of federal pathways program and mentoring of student civic responsibility and service in public sectors by NRCS human resources department staff; d) Students learning of online modules developed by University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)/ University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)/ New Mexico State University (NMSU) faculty on foundation of agriculture data science and technology to enhance their industry-recognized credentials and qualification for employment in agriculture industry. Objective 2. Curriculum Development and Enhancing Faculty Preparation a) Developing online modules in 4 areas using the faculty from UTA, UTEP & NMSU. These modules will consist of two parts; first part an agricultural topic (NMSU faculty), the second part will illustrate how engineering or math applies to the topic. The online modules will include: Agricultural data science, Agricultural Logistics, Agricultural Economics and Topics in Agricultural technology. b) Working with UTA/NMSU/UTEP and NRCS to introduce appropriate cutting-edge technology and advanced data skills in CC students' learning experience, for this objective we will be creating agricultural modules merging the curriculum from NMSU or practices in NRCS, with data analytics from UTA and UTEP. Faculty from all three institutions and NRCS will collaborate to provide all students real world examples of smart agriculture. c) Facilitating committed and active partnership with feeder community colleges, UTA/NMSU/UTEP and NRCS; to host a faculty professional development workshop for 30 community college (CC) STEM faculty, PI team members, and NRCS staff, review potential agricultural fields for future jobs in smart agriculture and determine curricular topics for students' online modules and learning outcome; and engage stakeholders in workforce training for CC students.Objective 3. Building Regional Hispanic Serving Institution Alliance for Agriculture a) Fostering collaboration among multiple institutions and faculty participants b) Serving as a focal point with the proposed educational activities throughout the region/nation in data analytics and technology to engage community college students, transfer students from community colleges and underrepresented minority students. c) Maintaining strategic relationships with the USDA agencies including NRCS and ARS centers so that students can be employed through USDA supported summer internship training programs and university research in agriculture related data science and technology.
Project Methods
The proposed project consists of several major well integrated components: 1) faculty workshop, 2) multi-institutional and disciplinary online modules, 3) student annual symposiums, 4) undergraduate research and peer mentoring of CC students, and 5) NRCS summer apprenticeship and CC-campus visits. the components of our project will complement each other in assisting students to introduce agriculture careers to them. The proposed programs have a broad institutional buy-in and will be institutionalized at the conclusion of the grant period.Activity (1) Organize a faculty professional development workshop for at least 30 participants including community college (CC) STEM faculty and agricultural workforce development stakeholders to develop strategy and discuss learning outcome for curriculum year 1. The goal of the workshop is to bring the industry, government and academic leaders together to develop curriculum learning outcomes that meet industry minimum standard for hiring. In Texas, there is no Industry-Based Certification for information technology-based agriculture engineering. USDA has criterions for engineering qualifications. This proposed collaborative work will bridge the gap, and facilitate to develop a set of curricular materials (online modules) as supplemental resources and study aids for a number of certificate programs and mini credential programs for CC students, to enable participants either 1) complete the study to earn industry recognized credentials to directly enter in employment; or 2) are motivated to pursue 4-year degree to meet USDA hiring standard for agriculture engineering job.Faculty Professional Development Workshop for community college (CC) STEM faculty, PI team, speakers and NRCS staff (total 30 participants).Activity (2) Curriculum Development of Online Learning Modules We develop online modules for climate-smart agriculture foundations and enrich the quality of CC instruction through agriculture relevant curriculum development and innovative teaching methods that promote access to powerful learning through real-life problem solving, and serve at least 50 students per year and enable them to work for industry-recognized credential attainment.Online Learning Modules for Community College. The DATA-Ag participants will receive access to enhanced instruction and training in four online modules courses: Agriculture Economics, Agriculture Data Analytics, Logistics & Supply Chains in Agriculture and Topics in Agricultural Technology. We plan to distribute these contents via online, focusing mostly on foundations and introductions to agriculture careers. Developed resources include online materials, video, and data analysis practice problems, and information for professional development.Activity (3) Organize Annual Climate-Smart Agriculture Symposium, annually serving 100 participants including community college students and faculty and underrepresented minority students for year 2 and year 3;DATA-Ag Symposium for CC faculty and CC students and URM students, USDA NRCS scientists and engineers, and industry partners in UTA and UTEP/NMSU. There will be demonstrations, presentations and panel discussions.Activity (4) Recruit, train, retain and graduate at least 9 URM UG or MS students in 3 years to provide agricultural data research experience, apprenticeship and serve as a peer mentoring leader for 4 community college (CC) students, they will peer-mentor at least 36 CC students over 3 years and the mentoring includes experience sharing, federal pathways program etc.DATA-Ag Research and Peer Mentoring ExperienceThe DATA-Ag PI team will serve as a faculty mentor and recruit at least 3 UTA/UTEP/NMSU URM students per year on work on research in agriculture data science. The students (either Masters or undergraduate) will assist faculty on research as well as hosting faculty workshop and annual symposium. They will serve as a good role model for community college students. Each of the DATA-Ag students will lead a peer mentoring group for 4 CC students who are to be recruited from partner schools based on CC faculty recommendation. The faculty and DATA-Ag students will provide peer mentoring, sharing experience in research and internship in NRCS apprenticeship program and their success stories in 4-year universities, and to provide guidance for community college students to transition into 4-year universities.Activity (5) Provide apprenticeship opportunities to participating UTA/UTEP/NMSU students, develop student problem solving and leadership skills through participation in research experiences and peer mentoring activities, and encourage underrepresented minority students to USDA to pursue careers. Each NRCS apprenticeship students will visit 4 CC campus visits to share their internship experience and recruit mentees for the program. Summer Apprenticeship at USDA NRCSNine (9) DATA-Ag students will have opportunities for apprenticeship during the summers at NRCS in Fort Worth. They will conduct internship and field work at USDA NCRCS office to further the development of their scientific and professional competencies outside the classroom by immersing them in real-world problems.The procedures for accomplishing the objectives of the projectWe will form a PD team Drs. Su, Taboada and Valles among UTA/UTEP/NMSU that will be the decision-making body as the management team for DATA-Ag program. This way, should one member have a leave of absence, the project will continue running smoothly with his/her replacement. The Management Team will have two meetings convened by the PD per semester, make decisions about implementing project components in all areas, and assess progress towards meeting the project's goals and objectives.Evaluation Plans The PI team has developed an evaluation plan for its DATA-Ag project that is appropriate for the scope of the project and that includes several critical elements. This plan will be sufficient and effective in determining if the project is meeting its goals, has buy-in from administration and is appropriately institutionalized at the end of the three-year period. The plan is to have an internal project evaluation, which will collect the information on our metrics to measure progress. Internal evaluation will be driven by the PI team and other project staff. The PI will coordinate evaluation activities to ensure that appropriate collection procedures are in place, that data is being collected and analyzed on a regular basis and that, as needed, changes are being made in project implementation to ensure success.The Approach for Evaluation The evaluation process will be driven by the objectives as they are written into this proposal. Specific tasks will include: (1) Ensuring that all project components are being implemented according to the grant agreement; (2) Reporting on the progress of the project toward meeting its objectives; (3) Assist with developing evaluation tools for use by project staff; (4) Analyzing data collected by evaluations; (5) Outlining significant barriers to the achievement of objectives and making recommendations for overcoming barriers; and (6) Identifying unanticipated benefits/problems encountered by the project, among others.

Progress 11/01/22 to 10/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The Developing an Alliance for Training and Apprenticeship in Climate-Smart Agriculture program (DATA-Ag) targets Community College (CC) STEM students, Community College STEM faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields. For this grant period, we started with a large conference focusing on Community College STEM faculty and students and reach broadly to CC through hosting Climate-Smart Agriculture Student Symposium, CC campus visits and peer-mentoring of CC students by UTA/NMSU/TAMUK students. Changes/Problems:No major changes and problems are noted. We are in our last year of the project and we will re-apply to continue this program. The program has received praises in all stakeholders of this project. We plan to 1) continue to enhance our dissemination to reach younger student group (for example dual-credit students who take CC courses), and 2) broadly reach to CC faculty and USDA NRCS to seek input for our next proposal to NIFA. The goal is to raise the program to the next level. This can be done through mentoring more CC faculty to take over roles done by UTA, TAMUK and NMSU in this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The climate smart agriculture student symposium was held in Arlington TX, May 14-15, 2023. It provided with several opportunities for networking among participants from all collaborating institutions, industry and USDA. CC faculty from many academic areas including Chemistry, Biology, Computer Engineering to Horticulture have engaged in the discussion and together plan to incorporate agriculture and natural resource conservation contents into the CC curriculum for students. For student learning opportunities, our student interns . Grace Reed, Kalista Villa, Jared Richardson, of UTA, Christopher "Chris" Montes, of NMSU, Coltin Lopez, Martin Ramos Andres of TAMUK (6 Hispanic, 2 female) at NRCS worked under NRCS staff engineers and scientists and worked on hands-on tasks under NRCS staff. They experience demonstrates great examples how the knowledge they received from NRCS can benefit their study for STEM degree and enable them a better understanding of agriculture career pathways. During the summer 2023, 3 UTA students also engaged in agriculture research to further enhance their ability to research agricultural problems related to climate change. Grace Reed, Kalista Villa, Jared Richardson have worked on using data science tools to study genes for poultry diseases, and cattle feeding identification and rice seed breeding. Jared Richardson is currently pursuing Ph.D. degree in data science based on agricultural data problems. UTA students also spent a day to USDA ARS research centers in Stoneville Mississippi. Jared Richardson was also selected as a HACU fellow working for National Rice Research Center during AY 2023-24. TAMUK have organized students on using data science to solve agricultural problems. Students applied cutting-edge data analytics techniques, such as machine learning algorithms and statistical modeling, Through hands-on research and experimentation, they gained valuable experience in data science and agricultural practices, for more sustainable and efficient agricultural methods. Team 1 (IoT Applications) The primary focus of the experience was to learn more about technologies at the forefront of IoT applications within agricultural applications. Students research about the functionalities and capabilities of the Arduino OPLA IoT Kit. An Arduino Kit focused in IoT applications. Students worked in replicating and experimenting with a spectrum of common agricultural scenarios, ranging from automating irrigation systems to implementing sophisticated temperature control mechanisms. Through practical experimentation, students not only learned the theoretical concepts but also get the skills to effectively deploying IoT solutions in real-world agricultural settings. They used several sensors included in the kit to collect essential data pertinent to agricultural operations. This immersive learning experience not only fostered a deep understanding of IoT technologies but also instilled in students the confidence and proficiency to innovate and address contemporary challenges in agricultural management. Team 2 (Artificial Intelligence) The project focuses on the Data Analysis component, particularly on artificial intelligence techniques and image recognition algorithms to classify and derive insights from the collected data. Students explored advanced methodologies and algorithms included in the Anaconda software, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to make informed decisions based on data patterns. They applied and learned how to adapt the provided template, extending it to enable the classification of images across predefined categories. To conduct this comprehensive analysis, students utilized Anaconda, widely used Python distribution, along with KERAS a renowned deep learning library. Through their research and application of these cutting-edge tools, students gained invaluable insights into the potential of artificial intelligence in unraveling complex data sets and driving informed decision-making processes. Team 03 (Artificial intelligence) Focused on implementing pattern recognition techniques within the field of animal science. Their project involved gathering data through an innovative method to measure various animal attributes like temperature, weight, and age. This data underwent analysis using multiple classification methods to identify patterns capable of estimating an animal's health status without requiring formal clinical tests. Students used tools such as Anaconda and Python libraries, the students developed a prototype application using a basic user interface. Additionally, they explored potential avenues to enhance the application into a commercially viable product. Team 04 (IoT and artificial intelligence) focused on developing an application designed to precisely calculate the optimal usage of fertilizers and nutrients for specific crops. To achieve this, the students compiled a diverse collection of images showcasing various crop diseases and pests. They meticulously processed this data, employing advanced image recognition techniques to swiftly identify specific issues and recommend appropriate actions. Furthermore, the team crafted a prototype web application to facilitate user interaction with the system. Their overarching goal is to empower end-users to enhance crop production by leveraging a smartphone app for real-time crop health analysis. Additionally, they explored potential scenarios for transforming this concept into a practical and commercially viable product. Team 06 (Automation and Data Collection) This project focused on aquaponics and automated irrigation systems. The student explored and researched aquaponic systems. They learned about the relation between fish and vegetable production within a sustainable ecosystem. Students' main objective was the automation and optimization of the system. They research about several sensors and valves that can be used to control and monitor and optimize an aquaponic system. The team adopted the Arduino OPLA platform to collect data. The Arduino platform allow collect data in real time and presensted that data in a web-based application that allow remote control of the system. NMSU has also developed an online learning course module to enhance industry-accepted credential programs in community colleges for workforce training. The key theme of the course module is about Agriculture Data Analytics, especially focusing on Data mining. We summarize the curriculum established for student professional development. By March 2024, students have been using the learning materials, a total of 40 users have been recorded for utilizing the modules. The contents of the developed modules in year 2 include Basic Economics for Agriculture One additional module (including 6 lectures) on Basic Economics for Agriculture was added this year. It includes INTRODUCTION Understanding Interest Drawing Cash Flow Diagrams Compound Interest Single Payment ANALYSIS TOOLS Using Present Worth Analysis Using Annual Cash Flow Analysis Using Rate of Return Analysis These tools are used on: Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam to get your Engineer in Training (EIT) Project Management Institute (PMI) has several certifications which these tools will be needed The International Cost Estimating & Analysis Association (ICEAA) has several certifications which these tools will be needed The International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) also has several certifications which these tools will be needed. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have been disseminating the information through CC campus visits and participation and presentation in different conferences, workshop and other venues. UTA team recruited three students who worked along with 4 faculty mentors and participated research activities, and also helped dissemination of DATA-Ag projects with Tarrant County College. They also presented their research in presentation and conferences. Logan Marshall presented his results in International Congress on Grassland in April 2022, Angela Avila presented in 2023 AIMS conference in North Carolina. Both Angela Avila and Logan Marshall have published 1 paper on their agriculture data science research. TAMUK recruited twelve undergraduate students from different fields such as agriculture, animal science, environmental science, engineering, and math. All students are Hispanic and represent minorities in different fields. All teams are interdisciplinary, and all students work along with their faculty advisors to explore different solutions to a variety of problems in the Agricultural field. Faculty covers different institutions such as TAMUK, Del Mar and San Jacinto College. NMSU recruited two students: Christopher Montes and Shane Griffin. They are Industrial Engineering majored undergraduate and graduate students, respectively. Christopher took a summer internship at Arlington, TX and conducted a field work at USDA NRCS office. Both also visited community colleges and shared the internship experience. Additionally, they reached out to faculty and staff at Dona Ana Community College (DACC) and El Paso Community College (EPCC). NMSU teams also conducted classroom visits at the community college as our primary audience is community college students. During the visit, they introduced our project goals and detailed project activities including annual climate-smart agriculture symposium and curriculum development of online learning modules. Additional opportunities: In Feb 2022, Dr. Su presented a plenary talk in TORUS (Texas Oklahoma Research in Undergraduate Students) conference, and presented the climate smart agriculture research for 115 faculty and students in Dallas College, most of them are from CCs. In Feb 2023, Dr. Su, and his 3 students visited Tarrant County College (TCC) to present their experience in NRCS internship program, climate smart agriculture research and invite student. The students participated are about 45. Dr. Su also presented a lecture about mathematics and climate smart agriculture to 60 transfer students in UTA UNLV class for professional development. TAMUK has promoted collaboration among all partner institutions, with a special emphasis among Texas A&M University Kingsville, San Jacinto College and Del Mar College. There were visits by Dr. Taboada and Dr. Espiritu to Del Mar College and visits by Dr. Gomez to Texas A&M Kingsville. Dr. Taboada also led a collaboration of TAMUK, UTA, TAMU-CC, San Jacinto on a NEXTGEG proposal for supporting students to become the next generation of agricultural workforce. TAMUK recruited 6 faculty and students from San Jacinto College who participated the conference. NMSU recruited 10 faculty and students from Dona Ana Community College and El Paso Community College who attended the conference at UT Arlington in May 2023. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Overall, we will follow through the grant proposed plan to carry out all activities. We will Host Climate Smart Agriculture student symposium at TAMUK in March 24-25, 2024, Recruit students to participate NRCS intern program in summer 2024, Publish developed curriculum modules online, and invite CC students to participate learning from these learning modules, UTA/TAMUK/NMSU faculty and students visit CC campuses at least two times per year to encourage students learning from modules and develop peer mentor relations, Develop collaborations with NRCS, Hispanic Serving Institution, and Community Colleges to advance workforce development in Climate Smart Agriculture and to plan for the student symposium in March 2024, Continue to develop more modules in Agricultural Logistics and Topics in Agricultural technology.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In Year 2 (Nov. 2022- Oct. 2023), we have successfully implemented the project, and have conducted the planned activities which include A Climate Smart Agriculture Student Symposium TheClimate Smart Agriculture Student Symposium was held in the University of Texas at Arlington during May 14-15, 2023. The Symposium's goal isto develop strategies to enhance a pipeline for urban college students to pursue career pathways in agriculture fields, increased diversity of agriculture workforce, increased human capital in Texas, New Mexico and beyond. Symposium Objectives are: 1) Expanding and Improving Workforce Training through Student Engagement, and 2) Building Regional Hispanic Serving Institution Alliance for Agriculture. We seek the anticipated Outcomes: 1) Learning of climate smart agriculture through sharing experience, knowledge and opportunities;2)Community building for engaging students, faculty and industry employers.The conference has achieved its goal and objectives through the active participation and its program in disseminating the project information. The symposium organizers include Jianzhong Su, chair, University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Jose Espiritu, Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK), Hansuk Sohn, New Mexico State University (NMSU), Delia Valles-Rosales, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Heidi Taboada, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Ray Dotson, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Central National Technology Support Center, Rick Tafoya, USDA Farm Production and Conservation Business, Human Resources Division, Phuc Vu, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Design, Construction, and Soil Mechanics Center. A total of 122 registered participants for the Student Symposium represented 16 participating organizations, including BlueSTEM AgriLearning Center BNSF Railway Dallas College Del Mar College Dona Ana Community College Eden Green Technology El Centro Community College New Mexico State University USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Opal's Farm / Unity Unlimited, Inc. San Jacinto College Tarrant County College Texas A&M - Kingsville The University of Texas at Arlington UNT Dallas USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service, Fort Worth USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service, Texas Dr. Kate Miller, Vice President for Research and Innovation, UTA; Kenneth Walker, USDA NRCS Assistant Chief; Kristy Oates, State Conservationist, USDA NRCS made opening remarks for the symposium. Jianzhong Su, UTA; Jose Espiritu, TAMUK; Hansuk Sohn, NMSU reviewed the project. USDA NRCS staff Mikela Pryor, Joseph Monaco, Lillian Keis discussed The New Generation of Agricultural Workforce. Koshi Dhingra, Delia Rosales, Johnathan Andres, Angela Avila served on a panel discussion on Institutional Programs to Promote, Facilitate and Support Climate Smart Agriculture. Representatives from Eden Green, Opal Farm, BNSF, Veterans Produce discussed prospective from future employers. Moderated round table discussions were participated by all participants and the topics are: What are the Issues and Challenges in Promoting Climate Smart Agriculture at Your Organization? In showcase of agricultural science, Drs. Genhua Niu and Joe Masabni of Texas A&M AgriLife in Dallas presented urban horticulture and aquaponics (vegetables and fishes together) in controlled environment food production. Faculty members from UTA/TAMUK/NMSU/UNT Dallas, USDA NRCS Phuc Vu, Rafael Guerrero, BlueSTEM, Kristy Ehlers, Ann Marshall had discussed curriculum, programs and student opportunities and developing student experiential learning research in a sizable scale. After the session, Industry partners, Students, NRCS, and Faculty had set tables for Poster preparation, industry table, and informal discussion. 6 students presented posters, and 11 organizations had exhibit tables in the conference. They are BlueSTEM AgriLearning Center BNSF Railway Dona Ana Community College El Paso Community College New Mexico State University Opal's Farm / Unity Unlimited, Inc. San Jacinto College Tarrant county college Texas A&M University-Kingsville University of Texas at Arlington UNT Dallas USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service During the dinner, Ms. Opal Lee, known as the grandmother of Juneteenth national holiday shared her life experience working in ag area and public service. The symposium gave awards for poster winners and other outstanding NRCS staff who helped the program. Student intern program at USDA NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) during summer 2023. A total of 6 students, Grace Reed, Kalista Villa, Jared Richardson who are undergraduate in Mathematics at UTA, Christopher "Chris" Montes, undergraduate of industrial engineering, NMSU, Coltin Lopez, undergraduate student in the Industrial Management and Technology Department, Martin Ramos undergraduate student in the Electrical Engineering Department at TAMUK were selected to participate the NRCS intern program based on their academic performance and there strong interest in agriculture. They have participated the program from May 17 to May 24, 2023, at NRCS office in Fort Worth, Texas. Students had participated in intern program with the following agenda Icebreaker Welcome and Introduction Hosting Plan Overview Introduction to NRCS Programs Introduction to NRCS Engineering/Urban Agriculture Future Meet CNSTC Acting Director Watershed Program Overview Area Office Visit NRCS Economics NRCS Field Office Technical Guide Rangeland Conservation Overview Conservation Planning Overview Dixon Water Foundation Field trip Urban Ag Tour Soil Mechanic lab Tour Animal Waste Management Overview Dam Construction site visit Close out/Debrief. Students gained a lot of insights and working knowledge of NRCS jobs and are interested in pursuing agriculture as career pathways. They made a PPT and later they used the information to disseminate among CC students they visited through presentations and campus visits. 3) Development of Learning Modules. We provide the contents in the section below. 4. Building Regional Hispanic Serving Institution Alliance for Agriculture UTA has established a close working relationship with NRCS and co-developed the program for Climate Smart -Agriculture workshop in year 1 and student symposium in year 2, along with TAMUK and NMSU. The alliance is enhanced with the student intern program in summer where students learned from NRCS engineers and scientists and shared with other students. UTA, TAMUK and New Mexico State University collaborated through research in data-driven agriculture technology development. The published work is listed in the product section.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: A. J. Ashworth, L. Marshall, J. J. Volenec, M. D. Casler, M. T. Berti, E. van Santen, C. L. Williams, V. Gopakumar, J. L. Foster, T. Propst, V. Picasso, J. Su, Framework to develop an open-source forage data network to improve primary productivity and enhance system resiliency, Agronomy Journal. First published: 17 August 2023, https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21441
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: James R. Kiniry, Amber S. Williams, Jacqueline Jacot, Alan Shadow, Melinda Brakie, Byron Burson, Russell Jessup, Ron Cordsiemon, Sumin Kim, Angela Avila, Sabry G. Elias, Diverse eastern gamagrass ecotypes: General characteristics, ploidy levels, and biogeography, Crop Science First published: 15 September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.21103
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Rodriguez Borbon Manuel Ivan, Sohn Hansuk, Delgado Efren, Fuqua Donovan, Rodriguez Medina Manuel Arnoldo, Tlapa Diego, Baez Yolanda (2023). Shelf-life Assessment on European Cucumber Based on Accelerated TemperatureHumidity Stresses. Applied Sciences, 13 (4), 2663.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Shaw, J., Fuqua, D., Sohn, H., Rodriguez-Borbon, M.I. (2023). Introduction of an arc rank order statistic for analysis of optimal solutions in traveling salesman problems. International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research. 1(1) DOI: 10.1504/IJMOR.2023.10059334
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: M�ndez-Gonz�lez Luis Carlos, Rodr�guez-Pic�n Luis Alberto, Rodr�guez Borb�n Manuel Ivan, Sohn Hansuk (2023). The ChenPerks Distribution: Properties and Reliability Applications. Mathematics, Vol 11 (13), 3001


Progress 11/01/21 to 10/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The Developing an Alliance for Training and Apprenticeship in Climate-Smart Agriculture program (DATA-Ag) targets community college STEM students, community college STEM faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields. For this grant period, we started with a workshop focusing on community college STEM faculty. Changes/Problems:No major changes and problems are noted. We observed that after almost 3 years of pandemic, CC student enrollments in community colleges have dropped substantially, and a larger percentage of CC students are high school students through dual-credit programs. The dual-credit students are less experienced than traditional CC students in math, science and STEM-education in general and less mature in terms of career pathway development. Their attendance patterns in CC campuses also changed and impacted our dissemination activities. On the other hand, some CC students also co-enroll in 4-year universities. We plan to 1) enhance our dissemination through social media and other venues to reach younger student group, and 2) broadly reach more student populations by including dual-credit CC students and transfer students from CC to broaden the impacts of this project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The climate smart agriculture workshop was held in Arlington TX, May 15-16, 2022. It provided with several opportunities for networking to participants from all collaborating institutions, industry and USDA. The participants were divided in groups and worked together to develop an initial idea about the different agriculture, natural resource conservation and data science topics and learning modules that were going to be developed among all collaborating institutions. We also pursue opportunities in training and professional development for both CC faculty and CC students. In our 2022 Climate Smart Agriculture faculty development workshop, we begin with CC faculty, agricultural experts and other stakeholders to seek input, before we develop curricular materials for CC students. We have 4 breakout sessions to encourage input from all areas, and then we summarize the inputs into actionable plan for the next project year. CC faculty from many academic areas including Chemistry, Biology, Computer Engineering to Horticulture have engaged in the discussion and together drafted plans to incorporate agriculture and natural resource conservation contents into the CC curriculum. For student learning opportunities, our student interns . Angela Avila, Logan Marshall and Johnathan Andres (2 Hispanic, 1 female) at NRCS worked under NRCS staff engineers and scientists and worked on hands-on tasks under NRCS staff. They experience demonstrates great examples how the knowledge they received from NRCS can benefit their study for STEM degree and enable them a better understanding of agriculture career pathways. During the summer 2022, 3 UTA students also engaged in agriculture research to further their ability to research agricultural problems related to climate change. Angela Avila, Logan Marshall and Johnathan Andres have worked on using data science tools to study crop resilience, ag-forestry interaction, and cattle feeding and digestive system through cattle acoustic recording. Angela Avila and Logan Marshall are currently pursuing Ph.D. degree in data science based on their agricultural data problems. 5 UTA students also spent a day to take Dixon water Foundation Education tour of the Bear Creek ranch. TAMUK students recruited to work directly in our project include: 4 undergraduate students (3 Male, 1 Female, all Hispanics). The students participated in Data Ag related research and education activities. The students worked in teams of two students. Team 1 (IoT Applications) focused in learning about the different technologies available today to implement IoT applications in agriculture. Students were working with the Arduino OPLA IoT Kit to replicate some common examples such as automatic irrigation systems and smart temperature control systems. Students learned how to use the Arduino kit to collect data from different available sensors. Team 2 (Artificial Intelligence) focused on the Data Analysis part of the project, more specifically about how to use artificial intelligence techniques and image recognition algorithms to classify and make decisions from collected data. Students were able to apply a given template and expand it to be able to classify any time image among some given classes. In order to perform the analysis students used Anaconda (Python distribution) and well-known deep learning libraries. NMSU reached out to Dona Ana Community College (DACC) and El Paso Community College (EPCC) and conducted classroom visits at the community college as our primary audience is community college students. During the visit, we introduced our project goals and detailed project activities including annual climate-smart agriculture symposium and curriculum development of online learning modules. In 3 presentations conducted in Oct. 2022, a total of 34 students participated. In NMSU, three students were involved in research projects related to the use of natural resources in additive manufacturing. There students attended the NAMRC 50 with the purpose of learning new trends of additive manufacturing and natural resources. These students were funded to travel to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana to attend the North American Manufacturing Research Conference, NAMRC 50 in 2022. One graduate student from industrial engineering was partially funded to work on a research project to use natural resources such a pecan shells to create biocomposites using PLA as a fiber matrix. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have been disseminating the information through CC campus visits and participation and presentation in different conferences, workshop and other venues. UTA team recruited three students who worked along with 4 faculty mentors and participated research activities, and also helped dissemination of DATA-Ag projects with Tarrant County College. They also presented their research in presentation and conferences. Angela Avila, Johnathan Andres have presented in University of Arkansas. Angela Avila also presented a paper in INFORMS 2021 on her work for remote sensing imaging of water stress including factors of irrigation, fertilization and other field management choices. Dr. Jaime Cantu has disseminated the course modules in UTA IE 2308 (18 Students, 70% transfer students from CC) and ENGR 1101 (198 students, 100% transfer students From CC) TAMUK team recruited four undergraduate students who along with their faculty advisors, participated in local research activities at TAMUK and helped disseminate the different DATA-Ag project activities at TAMUK, Del Mar and San Jacinto College. They visited Del Mar and San Jacinto Community Colleges and shared the project goals and objectives with students and faculty members, and they recruited faculty who participated in the 1st climate smart agriculture workshop held in Arlington TX, May 2023. NMSU team recruited two students: Shane Griffin and Itzel Chavez Martinez. They are Industrial Engineering majored undergraduate and graduate students, respectively. Shane took a summer internship at Arlington, TX and conducted a field work at USDA NRCS office. Both also visited community colleges and shared the internship experience. NMSU team reached out to faculty and staff at Dona Ana Community College (DACC) and El Paso Community College (EPCC). They have also conducted classroom visits at the community college as our primary audience is community college students. During the visit, they introduced DATA-Ag project goals and detailed project activities including annual climate-smart agriculture symposium and curriculum development of online learning modules. In 3 presentations, a total of 34 students participated. Jesus Ricardo Chavarria, a graduate participated in the 2nd International Food Reszearch Workshop in the Chihuahua Desert Region of North America (IFRW) in the city of Chihuahua Mexico from April 7-8, 2022 with the project title "Characterization of polylactic acid (PLA) and pecan nutshell (PNS) composite filaments for extrudability and fused deposition modeling (FDM)." This conference was organized and co-host by Dr. Efren Delgado, one of the Co-PIs of this Data-Ag grant. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Overall, we will follow through the grant proposed plan to carry out all activities. We will Host Climate Smart Agriculture Student Symposium at UTA in May 2023, Recruit students to participate NRCS intern program in summer 2023, Publish the developed curriculum modules online, and invite CC students to participate learning from these models, UTA/TAMUK/NMSU faculty and students visit CC campuses at least once per semester to encourage students learning from modules and develop peer mentor relations, Develop collaborations with NRCS, Hispanic Serving Institution, and Community Colleges to advance workforce development in Climate Smart Agriculture and to plan for the next student symposium. Continue to develop more modules in Agricultural Engineering Economics and Agricultural Technology.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? In Year 1 (Nov. 2021- Oct. 2022), we have successfully launched the project, and have implemented the activities in year 1 which include 1) A Climate Smart Agriculture Workshop for faculty development. The faculty workshop was held in the University of Texas at Arlington during May 16-17, 2022. The workshop's goal isto develop strategies to enhance a pipeline for urban college students to pursue career pathways in agriculture fields, through student engagement, curriculum and regional HSIs Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture,to increase diversity of agriculture workforce, and to increase human capital in Texas, New Mexico and beyond. Workshop organizers include Jianzhong Su, chair, University of Texas at Arlington, Jose Espiritu, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Delia Valles-Rosales, New Mexico State University, Heidi Taboada, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Johanna Pate, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Central National Technology Support Center, Rick Tafoya, USDA Farm Production and Conservation Business, Human Resources Division. A total of 49 participants for the faculty development workshop represented 14 participating organizations, including New Mexico State University, Dona Ana Community College, El Paso Community College, Texas A&M University Kingsville, San Jacinto College, Tarleton State university, Tarrant County College, University of North Texas at Dallas, University of Texas at Arlington, USDA Farm Production and Conservation Business Center, USDA Liaison, Office of Partnerships & Public Engagement, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Los Angeles Community College, California State University Northridge. Prior to the workshop, we had set the workshop objectives as: 1) Expanding and Improving Workforce Training through Student Engagement, 2) Curriculum Development and Faculty Preparation, and 3) Building Regional Hispanic Serving Institution Alliance for Agriculture. We anticipated the outcomes of the faculty workshop to be : 1) Developing learning outcomes for climate smart agriculture learning modules, 2) Planning for engaging students, faculty and industry employers. We have accomplished the goals for the workshop. All participants have been engaging in many presentations, panel discussion and breakout session. Working collaboratively, we have drafted learning outcomes for the learning modules to be developed, have made plans for activities during project years 1-3 during the workshop, and have obtained the desired outcomes. 2) Student intern program at USDA NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) during summer 2022. A total of 3 students, Johnathan Andres of UTA, Logan Marshall of UTA, and Shane Griffin of NMSU was selected to participate the NRCS intern program based on their academic performance and there strong interest in agriculture. They have participated the program from July 5 to July 15 at NRCS office in Fort Worth, Texas. Students had programs in 1) Introduction to NRCS Program and Engineering, 2) Conservation Planning Overview 3) Wetland Engineering Overview, 4) Rangeland Conservation Overview 5) Geologic Site investigation Site Visit, 6) Dixon Water Foundation Field trip, 7) Meet NDCSMC Director, Jon Fripp, 8) Hydrology and Hydraulic Overview, 9) Field Office Visit, 10) Soil Mechanic lab Tour, 11) Animal Waste Management Overview, 12) Stillwater Oklahoma USDA-ARS Hydraulic lab and OK-NRCS SO visit, 13)Visit NRCS-OK State Office, 14) Dam Construction site visit. Students gained a lot of insight and working knowledge of NRCS work and are interested in pursuing agriculture as career pathways. 3) Development of Learning Modules. UTA has developed 2 modules 1) SAS basic programming. Chapter 1 1-1 Enter Data Manually 1-2 Import Data From Files 1-3 Create New Variables 1-4 Subsetting Data 1-5 Merge Data 1-6 Data Formatting Chapter 2 2-1 Descriptive Statistics 2-2 Statistical Comparison 2-3 Model Prediction 2-4 Model Selection 2) Introduction to Python modules:https://github.com/keatonhamm/IntroPython - Introduction to python syntax - Values, Variables, and Types in Python - Conditionals - Loops - Functions - Linear Algebra (numpy package) - Plotting (matplotlib package) - Introduction to data manipulation (pandas package) - Object Oriented Programming basics in Python. TAMUK developed 14 online course modules divided in four main units a) Introduction and basic programming tools, b) Functions and classes, c) Libraries and applications and d) data analytics. The purpose is to teach basic Python programming and data science to community college and undergraduate students, the data science modules will be implemented during the Spring 2023 semester in a data Ag analytics and entrepreneurship class. NMSU developed online learning modules for Agriculture Data Analytics, focusing especially on Data mining. With the course modules, we introduce students to two fundamental tools for extracting useful information from data: 1) linear regression and 2) logistic regression. The course also talks about cross validation to assess the predictive accuracy of a model using a data set different than the one the model was trained with. The learning module uses Desmos, a free online graphing calculator, to demonstrate each method. 4). Building Regional Hispanic Serving Institution Alliance for Agriculture UTA has established a close working relationship with NRCS and co-developed the program for Climate Smart -Agriculture workshop, along with TAMUK and NMSU. The alliance is enhanced with the student intern program in summer where students learned from NRCS engineers and scientists and shared with other students. Dr. Su, NRCS lead Phuc Vu has visited Tarrant County College (TCC) to visit the Dean of Science and Math to discuss collaboration, and visited the faculty and visited TCC agriculture facility in Nov. 2022. NRCS intern project lead Phuc Vu gave a guest lectures to 20 Tarrant County College students in irrigation classes about the agriculture knowledge. He also gave a guest lecture in UTA for water resources class (20 students) in Nov. 2022. Dr. Su and Mr. Vu also participated in urban farming workshop hosted by Texas A&M University Agrilife Center in Dallas. TAMUK has promoted collaboration among all partner institutions, with a special emphasis among Texas A&M University Kingsville, San Jacinto College and Del Mar College. There were visits by Dr. Taboada and Dr. Espiritu to Del Mar College and visits by Dr. Gomez to Texas A&M Kingsville. TAMUK also collaborates with the main 4-year partners, The University of Texas at Arlington and New Mexico State University through collaborative research in data-driven agriculture technology development. The published work is listed in the product section. NMSU recruited 5 faculty professors from Dona Ana Community College and 6 faculty professors from El Paso Community College attended the workshop at UT Arlington in summer 2022. Presentations were done and there were various discussions on developing a strategy to prepare curriculum in Data-Ag.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Cram, Ana; Espiritu, Jose; Taboada, Heidi; Valles-Rosales, Delia J; Park, Young Ho; Delgado, Efren; Su, Jianzhong; Multi-objective biofuel feedstock optimization considering different land-cover scenarios and watershed impacts; Clean Technologies and Recycling; Vol. 2, No 2, page 504. DOI: 10.3934/ctr.2022006
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Cabrales-Arellano, Patricia; Park, Edward; Minor, Martha; Delgado, Efren; Valles-Rosales, Delia; Taboada, Heidi; Espiritu, Jos�; Su, Jianzhong; Park, Young Ho. Rapid identification of Staphylococcus aureus based on a fluorescence imaging/detection platform that combines loop mediated isothermal amplification assay and the smartphone-based system. Sci Rep 12, 20655 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25190-6
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Villa Silva, A.J., P�rez Dom�nguez, L.A., Mart�nez G�mez, E., Romero L�pez, R., Valles Rosales, D.J. (2022). Dimensional Analysis Under Pythagorean Fuzzy Set with Hesitant Linguists Term Entropy Information. In: Le�n-Castro, E., Blanco-Mesa, F., Alfaro-Garc�a, V., Gil-Lafuente, A.M., Merig�, J.M., Kacprzyk, J. (eds) Soft Computing and Fuzzy Methodologies in Innovation Management and Sustainability. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 337. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96150-3_2
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: D�az-Mendoza, J.M.; Valles-Rosales, D.J.; Park, Y.H.; Sabo, R.C. Micromechanical Modeling for Tensile Properties of Wood Plastic Composites: Use of Pruned Waste from Pecan Orchards as Sustainable Material for Reinforcement of Thermoplastic Composite. Polymers 2022, 14, 504. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14030504
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Vel�zquez-Mart�nez V, Valles-Rosales D, Rodr�guez-Uribe L, Laguna-Camacho JR, L�pez-Calder�n HD, Delgado E. Effect of Different Extraction Methods and Geographical Origins on the Total Phenolic Yield, Composition, and Antimicrobial Activity of Sugarcane Bagasse Extracts. Front Nutr. 2022 Feb 24;9:834557. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.834557. PMID: 35284462; PMCID: PMC8908448.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sayed Kaes Maruf Hossain, Azul Toledo Vega, Delia Valles-Rosales, Young Ho Park, Sarada Kuravi & Hansuk Sohn (2022) Particulate suspension: a review of studies characterizing particulates and volatile organic compounds emissions during additive manufacturing processes, Particulate Science and Technology, DOI: 10.1080/02726351.2022.2094301