USDA ARS Research Apprenticeship Program at University of Texas at Arlington

Goals / Objectives
1. Advancing data-driven research in climate-smart agriculture in any participating ARS research office. 2. Building a pipeline for future U.S. agriculture workforce that data and technology savvy and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in agriculture research.

Project Methods
This project is to support a research internship program for 24 students to work with ARS scientists on agriculture data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) research. The Project methodology and program activities include: Training: ARS and University of Texas at Arlington will provide an intensive 2-week training program to get student ready, 20 hours per week for 2 weeks (total 40 hours for undergraduate). The program elements are: â¿¢ seminars by ARS scientists, â¿¢ hand-on training for stats, programming and introduction to agriculture engineering, â¿¢ working on summer project planning under faculty and ARS scientists. Research Apprenticeship program jointly mentored by ARS and UT at Arlington scientists, a 8 week program (40 hours per week, 320 hours for undergraduate). The program elements are: â¿¢ Opening ceremony, USDA speakers and students who present summer project outline, â¿¢ Agricultural data research that are jointly supervised by ARS scientists and UTA faculty, â¿¢ Remote working from ARS, workplace is at UTA campus. UTA provides office space and computation facilities, â¿¢ The research topics are in Climate-smart agriculture particularly in data analysis using modeling and machine learning, â¿¢ A student symposium at the end of program to report student progress and recruit next cohort.