[Sustainability-listserv-f] FW: Smart Farm Working Groups - Sign Up Here!

[Michael Dawson]

Dear Sustainability colleagues –
There’re really exciting opportunities for sustainability research, education, and application in the Smart Farm, with on- and off-campus communities.  If you’re interested in getting involved, see below.
-Mike



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Hello,

Just a reminder that we are looking to wrap up the initial Smart Farm Working Group sign up by this Wednesday May 19th. Thank you to everyone who has joined in already, we’ll be in touch to schedule the first meetings in the coming weeks.


If you want to join in, please check out our work plan (attached) and go to the Google Form where you can sign up: https://forms.gle/8eyCzPNZjuwvJYQv6
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions about the Groups.

All the best,
Anna, Leigh, Josh, & Tom
 Anna Rallings <arallings at ucmerced.edu>



From: Anna Rallings
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2021 11:00 AM
To: Smart Farm Gang - UCM <smartfarmgang-UCM at merced.onmicrosoft.com>
Subject: Smart Farm Working Groups - Sign Up Here!


Dear Farm Folks,



As we mentioned in the Barn Yard updates, we are ready to form and launch the Working Groups. Please read through the attached document for all the details on objectives, timeline, benefits, and commitment.



Your choice is much easier:  there are 2 Working Groups with multiple subtopics within each main group.  Several of you mentioned the need for integration among topics, so we rethought the structure and decided that fewer, more integrated, groups was the way to go.



To sign up, check out this Google form to see the work plan: https://forms.gle/8eyCzPNZjuwvJYQv6

 Please respond by Wednesday May 19th, we hope to kick off our first meeting in the coming month.



Here are the two broad groups, however, these subtopics are not exhaustive and there will be opportunity to cross-pollinate between groups:

1. Physical Domain:

  *   Life Cycle Management: How do we approach generating and cycling what we need on the farm site? May include renewable energy and waste management as well as requisite infrastructure and resources.
  *   Land & Water Management: How can we make the best sustainable decisions about the natural resources on our site and demonstrate good stewardship practices? May include water & irrigation, crop status, pest management, soil & nutrients, groundwater & recharge, carbon/GHG accounting, natural areas & biodiversity as well as onsite instrumentation, baseline data requirements, or delineation of set asides.
  *   Sensing & Data: How can we make the farm a data rich, real-time resource for our campus? May include sensor networking/IoT, drones and robotics, highspeed connectivity, data management & portals, data processing, modeling, & visualization as well as on site and off site physical infrastructure (e.g., drone hive and workshop space).



2. Community Health and Engagement:

  *   Education: How can we engage our on campus and extension programming with the farm? May include identifying curriculum opportunities, existing and future programming, summer institutes, extension, and workshops as well as identifying on site teaching space needs.
  *   Food Security/Healthy Eating/Community Engagement: How can we create a physical and scholarly space for engaging our on/off-campus community and industry as well as integrate exploration of societal issues such as health eating and other public health issues? May include industry, agency, and NGO engagements, marketing & communications, community spaces such as demo gardens and community gardens, and programming.
  *   Future of Farm Work: How do we study worker and grower attitudes and behavior, and understand evolving workforce ecology? How do we design human-machine systems with respect work cognition, health and safety, and other factors? May include sensor/IoT, and worker/grower workshop and upskilling/reskilling facilities.



A big thanks pitching in on this big job!



Sincerely,

Anna, Leigh, Josh, & Tom

[cid:image001.png at 01D74B1F.330DC9D0]
ANNA RALLINGS

Researcher Coordinator & Lab Manager, VICElab
DEPT. OF CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

5200 Lake Road | Merced, California 95343
vicelab.ucmerced.edu | 209.446.9927
BUILDING THE FUTURE IN THE HEART OF CALIFORNIA
Please be aware I will be away from Monday June 28th returning July 19th, contact me if you need deliverables in advance.

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