The AgAID institute is a recently awarded National AI Institute led by Washington State University with Oregon State University serving as the AI-lead organization involving over 13 Oregon State researchers. The goals of the institute are to study new and existing AI techniques for addressing some of the most challenging problems facing today's farmers, with a focus on specialty crops such as grapes, apples, cherries, nuts, etc. This talk will give a high-level introduction to the institute by reviewing the main research thrusts of labor, farm operations, and water management. In addition, we will highlight some of the early projects and results that are underway. Finally, we will look ahead and discuss near-term and longer-term plans for the institute.
Alan Fern is a professor of computer science and associate head of research for the School of EECS at Oregon State University. He received his Ph.D. (2004) in computer engineering from Purdue University, and his B.S. (1997) in electrical engineering from the University of Maine. His research interests span a variety of topics in artificial intelligence and robotics with a particular emphasis on building systems that can learn from experience. He co-directs the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory with Jonathan Hurst at Oregon State and is PI for a number of government funded projects including DARPA programs on explainable artificial intelligence and machine common sense. Most recently he is serving as the AI-lead PI for a new $20M AI Institute on Agricultural AI in collaboration with Washington State University.