This $500,000 Project Grant award from the USDA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program to Michigan State University (MSU) aims to revolutionize the efficiency and sustainability of thermal food processing. MSU will develop a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) and reduced-order modeling techniques to enable real-time optimization of food drying and cooking processes, with the goal of significantly reducing associated energy use and carbon emissions. The research will validate these...
This $10 million project grant from the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA #10.310), will fund research, education, and extension activities to build resilience in local and regional food systems in the Midwest region against multiple concurrent shocks such as pandemics, climate events, and foodborne pathogens. Michigan State University is the primary awardee and will collaborate...
The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $617,500 Project Grant to Michigan State University under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA 10.310). The grant funding will be used to develop an AI-enhanced multispectral vision-based in-field apple sorting system. The key objectives are to: 1) create a multispectral imaging system integrated with a screw conveyor for full-surface fruit inspection, 2) develop deep learning models...
Purdue University received a $650,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.310 - Agriculture and Food Research Initiative) to establish novel post-harvest processing systems that can improve beef quality attributes and foster the profitability and sustainability of the local meat sectors. The research program aims to address the lack of local slaughter capacity and high processing costs faced by local livestock...
This federal Project Grant award, valued at $650,000.00 and provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, examines how small businesses that use biomass to create products such as premium soils intersect with the future large-scale need for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The key objectives are to 1) analyze the market for bioproducts, 2) perform market development...
This $250,000 project grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CFDA 47.070) program supports an interdisciplinary research effort led by the University of Virginia to develop a networked cyber-physical system for controlled-environment agriculture (CEA). The project aims to optimize crop production and energy efficiency in CEA facilities to address global food security challenges. Key aspects of the research include: 1) integrating...
This $600,969 Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (CFDA 10.310 - Agriculture and Food Research Initiative) supports the development of an "Electroponics" system for the precision delivery of water and agrichemicals to crops. The project aims to address challenges posed by climate change and population growth, including water scarcity and inefficient agrichemical application, through an interdisciplinary...
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) was awarded a $623,645 project grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program. The four-year project aims to develop new thermal sensing and analysis techniques to reliably predict the reduction of human pathogens like Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli, and Listeria monocytogenes in low water...
This Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program supports research to improve the quality and production of fermented fruit and vegetable foods. Specifically, the $595,400 award to the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) will assess the use of electrochemical methods and safe microorganisms to better control fruit and vegetable fermentations, with the...
This $1,150,000 Project Grant award from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program supports the development and assessment of a data-driven system to optimize individualized feed formulations for dairy farms. The objectives are to: Complete development of an anomaly detection system that uses real-time animal performance data to discover individual amino acid requirements and formulate custom diets, Evaluate the...
This $695,652 project grant awarded by the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program aims to develop and evaluate a novel cyber-physical system for real-time optimization of thermal food processing operations. The project will create first-principle models and reduced-order computational techniques to accurately estimate unmeasurable process variables and enable optimal control of food drying, cooking, and pasteurization. The goal is to substantially improve the energy efficiency and productivity of thermal food processing, which could reduce carbon emissions equivalent to 2.7 billion miles driven by a gasoline-powered car annually. The 3-year project will be led by the Regents of the University of Michigan - University of Michigan-Dearborn, which has extensive experience in securing federal grants for advanced research in STEM fields. The developed procedures and algorithms are expected to broadly apply to a wide range of thermal processing operations for food and agricultural products.