Progress 06/15/24 to 06/14/25
Outputs
Target Audience:During this reporting period, June 14, 2024 - June 13, 2025, Cohort 1, which comprises of 8 students, had completed their summer program, finalizing their team projects in Fall 2024, and presented their team projects at the 2024 ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meetings in San Antonio, Texas (https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/whats-happening). We also recruited and selected 10 students to form Cohort 2 in Spring 2025. These students attended six weekly webinars in Spring (March 24 - May 2), and then were on campus at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi for the 8-week in-person summer program (May 19 - July 11). These students are from diverse academic backgrounds including agricultural and STEM fields (computer science, engineering, environmental science/spatial science). Recruitment efforts: Recruitment is always a challenge. We have developed recruitment materials and used such materials to recruit students for our program successfully. The links to the primary material materials include Our AgTech REEU webpage: reeu.tamucc.edu AgTech REEU flyer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c3IxWd1U1PknIRg-G6Q049fIj9vNVn_G/view We have extended the list of contacts from what we built last year and extended the invitation to more institutions, and welcome students from outside of Texas to apply. We also spread out the word from social media such as posting the flyer on LinkedIn. With all the efforts we put it, we have received over 30 complete applications, and about 1/3 from out of Texas. Participant selection is also critical. By learning the experience from other programs at REEU PI meetings in Fall 2024, we have also added an interview component during the final selection process. Although additional time and effort we put, this additional effort is crucial as it gave us the opportunity to know applicants, as well as the opportunity for applicants to know about our REEU program. We evaluated and selected students truly based on their academic preparation. As a result, we selected 10 students, and all were accepted and joined the program. These students are from diverse backgrounds including agricultural, computer science, engineering science, environmental science/spatial science, etc. of the 10 students, 2 are from out of Texas and 8 are from Texas. Changes/Problems:In our original proposal, we planned to launch the Year One program in Spring 2023, with students joining us on campus in the summer of 2023. However, due to a delay in receiving our award notification, the project officially started on June 13, 2023, and the first cohort of 8 was recruited in 2024 to conduct the summer activities, the main component of the program. This is a five-year program. In the proposal, we expect to recruit eight students per year to meet our goal of recruiting and providing research and extension experience to a total of 40 students. In this way, the activities for the last cohort (Cohort 2028) cannot be completed, as the program ends on June 13, 2028; otherwise, we need to apply for an extension. We have revised our recruitment plan following a meeting with Dr. Michelle Schelske, the REEU Program director, at the REEU National PD meeting in Kansas City, Oct. 10-11, 2024. We plan to recruit 10, 12, and 10 students, respectively, in 2025, 2026, and 2027, instead of 8 students per year. In 2025, we successfully selected and recruited 10 students for Cohort 2. Recruitment met our goal. Recruitment is always a challenge. We started the recruitment process for Cohort 2 in Fall 2024. The initial application deadline was the middle of December 2024. However, we received very few applications. The Fall 2024 deadline was relatively early, as most students were not clear about their summer plans. We extended the deadline to mid-February. In addition, participant selection is also critical. By learning from the experience of other programs at REEU PI meetings, we have also added an interview component during the final selection process. Although we put in additional time and effort, this effort is crucial as it allowed us to get to know applicants, as well as providing applicants with the opportunity to learn about our REEU program. We evaluated and selected students truly based on their academic preparation. As a result, we selected 10 students, all of whom were accepted and joined the program. Recruitment met our goal. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The topics on the half-day professional Development Workshop offered to Cohort 1 at the end of Juneinclude the research process, writing and presenting research findings, research design, literature review, reference citations, and research tools such as Overleaf, GitHub, and EndNote. As reported in last year's annual report, the professional development workshop was planned to be offered in the Fall semester in the proposal. Based on students' feedback, we moved this component to the summer, as students need the skills covered in this workshop to conduct their research projects over the summer. In Spring 2025, our AgTech REEU program provided four virtual webinars to students from diverse backgrounds in agriculture, computer science, spatial science and environmental science. We invited guest speakers from academia, industry, and research institutions and covered the following topics: 1) general agronomy and crop production; 2) Physiological aspects of crop growth and development; 3) Potential of Big Data in Agriculture; and 4) Use of sensors and telemetry in agriculture data collection. In Summer 2025, between May 19 and June 13, our AgTech REEU program provided Cohort 2 with 10-day short courses, including lectures and hands-on activities covering the topics in IoTs, UAVs, and geospatial science in agriculture. More specifically, we provided three-day lectures and hands-on training on IoTs (Project 1). The topics included an introduction to IoT and IoT applications in Agriculture, the components of the Raspberry Pi, data collection with Raspberry Pi and sensors, and the application of outdoor sensors. Through the training, students gained hands-on experience in assembling and configuring the microcontroller for agricultural applications. The three-day lectures and hands-on training on UAVs (Project 2) include: introduction to UAVsand remote sensing, drone planning, and UAV training. Through these training activities, students gain hands-on experience with the entire process of deploying UAVs for agriculture, encompassing preparation before flight, the actual flight, and post-processing of flight data. The three-day lectures and hands-on training on GIS (Project 3) include: an introduction to GIS, getting started with ArcGIS Online, Data integration and analysis with ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online and Power BI dashboard development, ArcGIS Notebook, real-time data visualization using Steamlit, near-real-time prediction, and dashboard development. Through these trainings and hands-on activities, students could process, visualize, and handle real-time spatial data. In addition, we offered a one-day workshop on data science and spatial data science, covering topics such as Python programming, NumPy, and Pandas for data manipulation and analysis, as well as spatial data science using Python. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Four students in Cohort 1 (half of Cohort 1) have attended and presented their team projects at the 2024 ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meetings in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 10-13, 2024. The two poster presentation titles are:Smart Farming Real-Time Monitoring, andCrop Water Stress Mapping using UAV mapping. A story map that highlights the results and activities from Cohort 1 has been completed and published online:https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/494d238a890a42979f11078f675bd879 Our REEU website maintains and updates all activities: https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/home Cohort 1 and team projects: https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/cohorts/2024-cohort Cohort 2 and team projects: https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/cohorts/2025-cohort Summer 2024 activities: https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/activities/2024-activities Summer 2025 activities: https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/activities/2025-activities What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period (June 14, 2025, to June 13, 2026) we aim to achieve two main objectives: 1) complete the activities for Cohort 2025 for Year Two, and 2) Form Cohort 2026 for Year Three. For Cohort-2025, there are three primary goals to accomplish by the end of 2025: Complete two team-based research projects: by June 14, 2025, students had finished all hands-on training associated with four projects, and they had started their team projects. They will complete the team projects by the end of summer. Submit the abstracts to conferences. Cohort 2 targeted two professional conferences in Fall 2025. One is 2025 ASA, CSSA, SSA International Annual Meeting, Nov. 9-12, Salt Lake City, Utah,Home ASA, CSSA & SSSA International Annual Meetings, and the other is the 2025 AGU annual meeting, Dec. 15-19, New Orleans, LA,https://www.agu.org/. Conference presentation: students will share their AgTech REEU program experience and share their team project findings at both conferences. Professional development workshop: We will offer a seminar focused on conducting effective research. We will revise the topics based on the feedback from Cohort 1. The potential topics include research process, literature review and reference management, writing and presenting research findings, leveraging generative AI for research and writing, collaborative research tools - Overleaf and GitHub, and submitting a manuscript and responding to reviewer feedback. For Cohort 3 for Year Three (2026), our goals include: Recruitment: We aim to recruit 12 students from diverse STEM and agriculture backgrounds. Spring webinars: We will offer a series of webinars in the spring, similar to those we provided for Cohort 1 and Cohort 2. Design, revise, and implement the summer activities for Cohort 3, including the curriculum on lectures and hands-on activities, and the team projects.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This reporting period spans the activities for Cohort 1 (June - Dec. 2024) and Cohort 2 (March - June 2025); the accomplishments for each cohort are reported separately. Accomplished for Cohort 1: 1) Team project and conference presentation: Cohort 1 of 8 students is divided into two teams. Each team completed a team project, titled "Smart Farming Real-Time Monitoring" and "Crop Water Stress Mapping using UAV mapping". Each team submitted an abstract to the 2024 ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meetings in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 10-13, 2024. Their abstracts were accepted. Half of the team (4 students) attended and completed a poster presentation at the conference. 2) Extension and shadowing with county agents: Cohort 1 had two days of shadowing with county agents. These activities provided the opportunity for students to have an in-depth discussion with county agents regarding their daily duties and beyond. They have learned their crucial role of agriculture and sustaining the community. 3) Professional development workshop: Cohort 1 had a half-day virtual workshop focused on conducting effective research at the end of June 2024. Key topics covered, for example, the research process, writing and presenting research findings, research design, literature review, reference citations, and research tools such as Overleaf, GitHub, and EndNote.These topics are essential for students as theyconduct their research projectsand prepare them to disseminate their research results. 4) A story map and a program webpage that covered the Cohort 1 activities have been completed, see the links: https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/cohorts/2024-cohort, and https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/activities/2024-activities. Accomplished for Cohort 2: Students attended fourweekly virtual webinars in Spring 2025. The topics cover general agronomy and crop production, physiological aspects of crop growth and development, the potential of big data in agriculture, the use of sensors in agriculture data collection, GIS in agriculture, and the use of drones in agricultural data collection. A 10-day lecture and hands-on learning experience focused on three projects in summer 2025. These three projects are: Project 1 - Sustainable sensing, processing, and communication and embedded IOT devices for intelligent agriculture; Project 2- utilizing UAS and associated data analytics to understand crop growth and development, and Project 3 - a real-time geo-visualization and analytics platform for smart farming. Each project provided 3-day learning and activities, culminating on the last day with a focus on data science and spatial data science. Field trips and Extension experience: The last project, Project 4, focuses on agricultural extension, which is to use agricultural extension to improve the sustainability and profitability of row crop producers. Students attended two crop tours (San Patricio and Jim Wells County) and a field trip to visit TAMUCC Autonomous Research Institute (ARI) between May 9 and June 13. The crop tour visits provided students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of crop products in South Texas and to meet and interact with farmers, industry professionals, and agencies. The ARI visit enriched students' knowledge of cutting-edge technology applications, fostering interdisciplinary insights for the research projects they would conduct in the summer. We also arranged two extension activities to shadow with county extension agents at the end of June, which will be included in next year's report. Professional Development Workshop: students attended a half-day workshop on crafting effective research in the summer of 2025.The topics include: introduction to research process, literature review and reference management, writing and presenting research findings, leveraging generative AI for research and writing, collaborative research tools - Overleaf and GitHub, and submitting a manuscript and responding to reviewer feedback. Two student-driven team projects: Building on Cohort One feedback, we introduced student-driven projects this year to boost student motivation. The 10 students in cohort 2 were divided into two groups based on their academic backgrounds. Students led and executed their own projects with the guidance provided by the PI/Co-PIs. One focuses on IoT development for soil moisture real-time collection, and Team Two focuses on Reinforcement learning for precision irrigation using UAV-derived data and physics-guided crop models. Each team conducted and completed a team project by the end of the summer, and they submitted three abstracts, one to the 2025 ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meetings, and two to the 2025 Annual AGU conference for Fall 2026. The completion of the team projects and conference presentation will be included in the following annual report. The activities and accomplishments of Cohort 2 are detailed on our REEU website, at https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/cohorts/2025-cohort and https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/activities/2025-activities. 5. Third-party mid-project evaluation:Cosgrove & Associates, our external evaluator, has completed the two evaluation reports, one for the first year and the other for the mid-project from start-up in 2023 through July 2025. According to the report, our strong and experienced PI and set of Co-PIs are "in place and continue to provide the necessary grant processes and management structure to support strategy implementation and continuous improvement associated with the key elements" of the program, and "Building upon the successful completion of Cohort One, 10 students participated in the 2025 Cohort Two REEU experience, and all students completed the Spring and Summer 2025 grant activities. Student feedback signals strategies and support structures provided the opportunity for students to actively engage in a dynamic undergraduate research community and agricultural/STEM related research projects. Furthermore, such feedback demonstrates students note the value of their undergraduate research efforts to support skills, knowledge & abilities related to instructional content, as well as ongoing development in areas such as understanding scientific processes; use of data & analytics for problem-solving; teamwork & group dynamics; integration of theory and hands-on work; overcoming obstacles/challenges; and developing self-confidence". C&A sees evidence the REEU team has established a strong foundation for additional student recruitment and continuous improvement connected to instructional content and modality, and student support strategies. The Cosgrove & Associates, our external evalautor, conducted virtual interviews and survey with students.Below are some students comments from the students. A complete version of the evaluation report is submitted as an "other products" Student Comments Regarding REEU Program Interest • The opportunity to participate in hands-on, team-based learning and research experience related to UAS & geospatial analysis in agriculture. • The opportunity to develop research interests associated with next generation agricultural related technologies. • Gain first-hand experience and leverage my Computer Science background into real world work such as geospatial data analytics REEU Student Feedback Regarding Beneficial Aspects of Ag-Tech • Working with other students and faculty to gain more knowledge, experience, and connections associated with smart agricultural technology. • Using research-based work to explore problems and apply engineering practices to improve agricultural efficiency. • Working in teams with students from different backgrounds to solve challenging tasks.
Publications
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Progress 06/15/23 to 06/14/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Collaboratively hosted by Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi and Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Corpus Christi, this AgTech REEU project aims to enhance the region's future workforce in next-generation agriculture through offering undergraduate research and extension experiences in innovative agriculture technologies to support sustainable agricultural efforts. This is a five-year program. Each year, we expect to recruit eight undergraduate students, especially Hispanics, women, and community colleges, to participate in our 25-week program (nine weeks in spring, eight weeks in summer, and eight weeks in fall) from diverse backgrounds in STEM and agriculture. We organize weekly webinars online in Spring and invite guest speakers from industry and consulting firms to cover various topics in agriculture and the use of innovative technologies in agriculture. During the eight weeks of the in-person summer program, we offer short courses, hands-on activities, and team-based project-focused research activities. In the Fall semester, students mainly focus on finalizing the research projects conducted in the fall and sharing the research results at conferences, in addition to attending a series of professional development seminars virtually. The goal is to help students acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities (SKAs) to prepare students for the future intelligent agriculture workforce and graduate study. Global spending on innovative agricultural technologies is projected to triple in the near future. However, the workforce lacks opportunities for science-based training and experience in this area. During this reporting period, June 14, 2023 - June 13, 2024, we undertook a rigorous selection and recruitment process to form the first cohort for our REEU program, which met our goal. We selected and recruited eight undergraduate students, three of whom were male, three were female, and two did not share their information in their applications. Six of the eight students were from underrepresented minorities, including four Hispanics, one Black or African American, and one American Indian or Alaska Native. Further, of the eight students, two were from community colleges, Del Mar College and Austin College. Regarding students' background, four students were from Computer Science, three were from Agriculture, and one was from environmental science with a minor in spatial science. These eight students were from a diverse background, which is a uniqueness and beauty of our program, but it also presents a challenge, which will be described in a later section. In terms of the origins of students, we had one from our campus, and the rest of the seven were from outside of our campus, which met our goal as this program aimed to provide research and extension experiences to students beyond our campus, particularly those with fewer and more limited resources. Of the eight students, seven were from Texas, and only one was from outside of Texas (North Carolina). We targeted this as our program focused on students from Texas, mainly south Texas. We hope to contribute to the future workforce for next-generation agriculture in Texas. Recruitment efforts: We have developed recruitment materials and used such materials to recruit students for our program successfully. The links to the primary material materials include: Our AgTech REEU webpage: reeu.tamucc.edu AgTech REEU flyer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rGrYfKqs4MbT4x_QbTdFdDFDwwLakFYw/view?pli=1 AgTech program offers tech skills, smart-farming experience - AgriLife Today (tamu.edu); https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu/2023/10/18/agtech-opportunity-to-gain-tech-skills-smart-farming-experience-for-undergraduate-students/ Students to gain smart farming experience thanks to new AgTech REEU program -- Conrad Blucher Institute, https://www.conradblucherinstitute.org/news/agtech-reeu We have also created a list of contacts for the educational programs offered at Texas universities and community colleges. The list contains academic advisors and department chairs from more than 100 programs we targeted to recruit students, including agriculture, computer science, engineering, spatial science, and environmental science. We sent them our flyer and program info twice, at the end of November and the beginning of January, to ask them to share with their students. We also did about ten classroom visits on campus and the campus from our partners, including Del Mar College and Texas A&M University at Kingsville. We shared our AgTech REEU program with students from students from diverse backgrounds. With all the efforts we put in, we have received 25 complete applications. Half of them were females, and half were males, excluding those who preferred not to provide the info. Seven were not Hispanic or Latino; the rest (eighteen) were Hispanics. Students were from different backgrounds, including agricultural science, animal science, plant science, computer science, computer engineering, GIS, environmental science, mechanical engineering, etc. Our team met a couple of times to discuss and screen the applications. Finally, we selected eight students to fill the first cohort, Cohort-One. As described in the previous paragraph, we have met our goal. Our third-party external evaluator, Cosgrove & Associates (C&A), has completed the first-year evaluation using both formative and summative methods. They had several meetings with students in person or online. According to the feedback from students, students appear to have reacted well to the information highlighted in the recruitment materials. All students agreed that hands-on, team-basedlearning & research experience related to IoTs, UAS, and geospatial analytics in agriculture is very important and motivated them to apply. In our recruitment information, we also highlighted other opportunities and benefits, for example, developing their research interest associated with next-generation agricultural-related technologies, providing extensive extension experience & opportunities to work and interact with county extension agents and local producers, and having opportunities to work with and learn from experienced professionals, and providing travel support to Texas A&M Corpus Christi, meal allowance and on-campus housing, and a weekly stipends. These opportunities and benefits also motivated students to apply. Changes/Problems:In our original proposal, we planned to launch the Year One program in Spring 2023, with students joining us on campus in the summer of 2023. However, due to a delay in receiving our award notification, the project officially started on June 13, 2023. We revised our schedule accordingly and successfully achieved all Year One objectives. Our grant team has undergone some changes. Dr. Pan, who was a co-PI, left the university. Fortunately, Dr. Soohkak stepped in as his replacement. We submitted a request to the REEU program to update the co-PI role, which was approved. We revised our program schedule due to recruitment challenges. But we successfully accomplished all the goals set for Year One. Our primary goal for each year of the AgTech REEU program is to recruit eight students, with a focus on females and underrepresented minorities from diverse backgrounds (STEM and agriculture), to participate in training, research, and extension activities related to innovative agriculture technologies. Recruitment was a significant challenge. We initially planned to recruit eight students to form Cohort One by the end of Fall 2024 and launched the Spring program in February 2024. As planned, we built our program webpage (reeu.tamucc.edu), created a flyer, and distributed our recruitment materials through various channels such as local news social media, and worked with our external partners. However, by the end of November 2023, the results were not as expected. We had to extend the application deadline to the end of January. In response, we discussed and revisited our recruitment strategy and implemented two new methods: 1) Expanding our external network: We developed a comprehensive list of academic contacts, including academic advisors, department chairs, and contact persons, in agriculture, computer science, spatial science, and engineering at universities and community colleges across Texas. We reached out to them twice (in December and January), requesting them share information about our program with their students. 2) Classroom visits. In collaboration with our external partners, we conducted in-person visits to classrooms at TAMUCC, Del Mar Community College, and TAMU-Kingsville. Thanks to these additional efforts, we successfully recruited eight students to form Cohort One, as anticipated. Of these eight students, six were from underrepresented minorities, including four Hispanic, one Native American, and one Black American student. Additionally, three of the students were females. They represented diverse backgrounds: four in computer sciences, three in agriculture, and one in environmental/spatial science. Two of the students came from community colleges. The majority (seven) students were from universities and colleges across Texas. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In Spring 2024, our AgTech REEU program provided six webinars to students from diverse backgrounds in agriculture, computer science, spatial science, and environmental science. These topics include 1) general agronomy and crop production; 2) the Physiological aspect of crop growth and development; 3) UAS-based wildfire monitoring; 4) the Potential of Big Data in Agriculture; 5) theUse of sensors and telemetry in agriculture data collection; and 6) ESRI: GIS in Agriculture. In Summer 2024 between May 20 - June 13, our AgTech REEU program provided Cohort-One with 10-day short courses, including lectures and hands-on activities covering the topics in IoTs, UAV, and geospatial science in agriculture. More specifically, we provided three-day lectures and hands-on training on IoTs. The topics included an introduction to IoT and IoT applications in Agriculture, the components of the Raspberry Pi, data collection with Raspberry Pi and sensors, and application of outdoor sensors. Through the training, students gained hands-on experience in assembling and configuring the microcontroller for agricultural applications. The four-day lectures and hands-on training on UAVs include: introduction to UAs and remote sensing, drone planning, and UAV training. Through these training activities, students have experience on a whole roadmap of deploying UAVs for agriculture, including preparation before the flight, the actual flight, and the flight data post processing. The three-day lectures and hands-on training on GIS include: an introduction to GIS, getting start with ArcGIS Online, Data integration and analysis with ArcGIS, dashboard development and real-time visualization, and geoevent and other GIS real-time capabilities. Through these training and hands-on activities, students had the capability to process and visualize, and handle real-time spatial data. In addition, we also offered a workshop on data science, including for example, Python programming, NumPy and Pandas for data manipulation and analysis. We have also offered workshops on professional development such as conduct research and technical writing. These workshops were original planed in Fall semester. However we moved them to the end of summer as requested by students. We will include them in the next year annual report because they were offered in the end of June. The activities in summer 2024 including the training are detailed at our project website at https://sites.google.com/view/tamucc-reeu/activities/week-3?authuser=0 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have shared our AgTech REEU program and activities provided by the program to the public through social media, our university's website, and local news. Here are some links: 1) students were featured on Kiit TV and local news: https://www.kiiitv.com/article/news/local/agrilife-students-computer-science-agriculture/503-b2e4bded-7a41-4673-9157-e8fa0186aeb6; 2) AgriLife Today - Texas A&M AgriLife's digital magazine and newsroom: https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu/2023/10/18/agtech-opportunity-to-gain-tech-skills-smart-farming-experience-for-undergraduate-students/; and 3) CBI's new webpage: https://www.conradblucherinstitute.org/news/agtech-reeu. Our program is the 25-week program. The main focus in Fall semester is to share and disseminate the research results from the team-based research projects at conferences. We will include the details in our next year's annual report. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period (June 14, 2024, to June 13, 2025), we aim to achieve two main objectives: 1) complete the activities for Cohort 2024 for Year One, and 2) Form Cohort 2025 for Year Two. For Cohort-2024, there are three primary goals to accomplish by the end of 2024: 1) complete two team-based research projects: by June 14, 2024, students had finished nearly all hands-on training associated with four projects. After that, they will then focus on team-based research projects. Students will be divided into two teams with a mix of backgrounds and will conduct two field-based research projects, one for each team. The projects will integrate IoTs, UAV, and Geospatial Analytics, applying what they have learned throughout the program to solve irrigation management problems. 2) Professional development workshop: we will offer a workshop focused on conducting effective research. Key topics will include, for example, the research process, writing and presenting research findings, research design, literature review, reference citations, and research tools such as Overleaf, GitHub, and EndNote. These topics are essential for students as they will conduct research projects and will prepare them to disseminate their research results. 3) Conference presentation: students will share their AgTech REEU program experience and share their team project findings at conferences. The target conference is the ASA/CSSA/SSSA annual meeting, November 10-13, San Antonio, Texas. For Cohort 2025 for Year Two, ourgoals include: Recruitment: we aim to recruit eight students, particularly Hispanics and females from diverse STEM and agriculture backgrounds. We expect to recruit one student from engineering, such as electrical engineering. We had one student from Engineering in our original Cohort 2024. However, that student did not make due to other commitments. Spring webinars: we will offer a series of webinars in the spring as we did for Cohort 2024. Curriculum revisions: Based on Year One feedback and Cohort 2025, we will revise the summer short courses (lectures and hands-on activities). Research project design: We plan to improve the design of team-based research projects for the summer program based on Year One feedback and Cohort 2025. Recruitment for Year Two will be a priority, and we have laid a strong foundation during Year One for continuous improvement in instructional connect, active learning research projects, and student support strategies, as highlighted in our external evaluation report. We will use similar recruitment strategies as in Year One, including sharing updated materials through social media and with our contact list and working with external partners like AMU-Kingsville and Del Mar Community College. Classroom visits proved effective, and we will continue this approach. Additionally, we will attend the first PD meeting in Kansas City in October 2024. We hope to connect with other REEU programs and explore collaboration opportunities for student recruitment. We aim to form Cohort 2025 by January 2025 and start the Spring program in early March as we had for Year One. Our team is currently reviewing lessons learned from Year One, including recruitment/curriculum/research challenges, student diversity, feedback from Cohort 2024, and external evaluation report from C&A. Based on the feedback from Cohort 2024 and the backgrounds of Cohort 2025, we will update the instructional content, such as the weekly webinars for Spring and short courses and hands-on activities for the summer program. We will add team-building activities to let students know each other before they are on campus in the summer. Additionally, we will also adjust the summer schedule to allow students to begin research projects earlier, providing more time to work on team-based research - an important lesson from Cohort 2024.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As today's farmers look to technology to improve production with less manpower, the future workforce must learn to use emerging technologies to perform agricultural tasks previously done by hand. Smart farming is the future of agriculture that involves technological innovations for farm management and is a key to developing sustainable agriculture. Global spending on smart and connected agricultural technologies is projected to triple by 2025. However, the current workforce lacks opportunities for science-based training and experience. Our program aims to empower students with the knowledge and experience to use innovative agricultural technologies to become qualified, passionate professionals ready to pursue advanced degrees or careers. There is great potential for students who participate in this program to go on and pursue graduate degrees and get involved in research or find high-paying jobs in the agriculture industry. The market for digital agriculture is growing, and we will need trained professionals in the coming years. During the first year of our AgTech REEU program, we recruited and provided research and extension experience to eight undergraduate students, including six underrepresented minorities, three females, and two from community colleges. Seven of the eight students were from Texas, and seven were from outside our TAMUCC campus. All eight students recruited in our AgTech REEU program indicate that they will or most likely will go to graduate study after they have completed their undergraduate studies. These eight students participating in our AgTech REEU program are part of a 25-week program covering Spring, Summer, and Fall, including Spring seminar instruction, Summer activity-learning, field-based team research projects, and Fall sharing of data and results from Summer research efforts. Through this experiential learning research and extension experiences, we helped students acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities in using innovative agricultural technologies to prepare them for the future intelligent agriculture workforce and graduate study. C&A asked students at the end of the Spring session to provide feedback associated with activities offered in the Spring. According to the external evaluation report by C&A, nearly all of the students reported that the Spring seminars had met or exceeded their expectations. They felt confident or very confident the Spring seminars had prepared them for the Summer research sessions. For example, students provided some comments associated with the Spring seminars: "big data and how that plays a role in making decisions, GIS technology since I plan to minor in that field, I felt it is very important to get some hands-on experience, and agronomy to understand the business aspect is really important." "I learned how drones can help with crop maintenance, and I am very excited to start working on these projects"; "I really enjoyed the GIS workshop, crop growth and application to agriculture". According to the students' feedback associated with the hands-on activities and research provided by the C&A, the majority of students were satisfied or more satisfied with the efforts and activities provided in each project. Through crop tour visits and field trips with county extension agents, students engaged and worked with County extension agents as well as with local producers to support cotton, corn, and grain sorghum crop production and learn best practices to improve sustainability and profitability for local producers. Some comments from students include, for example, "I very much enjoyed learning about the dashboard and creating a spatial database for the project," "I enjoyed working and understanding the field of County Extension agents," and "I appreciated the meetings with the agents and understand their work and meeting with local industry people and understand how it works." As stated in the external annual report by C&A, during the first year of the project, our grant team is in place and has created the necessary grant processes and management structure to support strategy implementation and continuous improvement associated with the four essential elements 1) faculty work with external partners to create undergraduate research & activity learning experiences in innovative technologies to support sustainable agriculture and development; 2) build mentoring opportunities to allow students to work and learn from professionals in the agricultural technology and smart farming industry; 3) recruit students to AgTech REEU opportunity; and 4) launch research-based learning experience & mental support for Spring & Summer 2024. We have reported the effort/funds expended in support of the "Project Coordinator" position for this project. Currently, these duties are shared by the following Conrad Blucher Institute personnel, Ms. DeAnna Crites, Assistant Director for Research Administration and Ms. Gina Concannon, Associate Executive Director. Together, they have more than 35 years of experience supporting pre- and post-award administration of sponsored projects. Additionally, various personnel provided volunteer efforts in support of this project - mainly in the summer months when the participants were at TAMU-CC. These efforts were critical to ensuring that the participants were welcomed to the campus community and supported during their time in Corpus Christi. The activity integration and design of this 25-week program are a very innovative approach to teaching our future students to work in digital agriculture. According to students' feedback, this program has really helped them learn things they normally would not in the classroom, which they hope to use for a future career.
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