Development of the new minor was fueled by the founders and faculty of the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture (CIDA), an interdisciplinary community of leaders across Cornell in areas of expertise ranging from the life sciences to social sciences, engineering and computing science.
Supported by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Engineering, the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and the College of Veterinary Medicine, CIDA is committed to finding practical solutions that increase the sustainability of farming practices. The institute prioritizes outreach to educate and influence farmers, agricultural policy makers, and industry workers on new advancements to increase agricultural sustainability and prosperity.
The minor will be attractive to students with a broad range of interests about how food production, farms, and rural and global communities are being transformed through technologies. Areas of inquiry include how the implementation of digital agriculture is going to transform industries and rural communities and redefine what it means to be a farmer with access to large amounts of data.
The introductory course in digital agriculture, required for students in the minor, is available this fall as an elective to any student at Cornell. The goal of the introductory course is to expose students to the breadth and diversity of how digital tools are applied in the field of agriculture today, especially in food production systems. Students will explore and discuss the main drivers of the digital transformation in agriculture at a local and global scale. Two field trips will take students – and faculty – beyond the classroom to see firsthand how farms are integrating new technologies to improve animal and plant production systems.
“Special emphasis will be placed on the integration of basic concepts of systems biology, data science, and engineering,” said Julio Giordano, associate professor of animal science and a co-director of CIDA, who leads the class. “By bringing in faculty from the different colleges that make up CIDA, we are exposing students to the many areas that impact our food production systems – natural resources, earth and atmospheric sciences, food science, global development, and computer science and engineering, among others.”
“Perhaps the most amazing thing about the digital ag minor is the breadth of disciplines that it includes,” said Diane Bailey, former director of CIDA and member of CIDA’s education committee. “For any student curious about the planet, who cares about how we grow our food, where we get our food from, and the life of those who grow it, this is a fascinating minor.”
