Washington, July 31 (SocialNews.XYZ) A US computer science professor has been awarded more than half a million dollars in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a research project being carried out in collaboration with India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to develop advanced technologies for precision soyabean breeding.
Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee announced Thursday that Dr. Xiaolei Huang, a professor of computer science at the University of Memphis, will receive a grant of $528,137 for the project, titled "Collaborative Research: VINES: Track 1: NSF-MeitY: SoyWatch: Smart Sensing Network for Precision Soybean Breeding."
According to the award details, the three-year project will begin on October 1 and run through September 30, 2029. It is funded jointly under an NSF-MeitY collaboration programme.
Announcing the award, Cohen praised the international partnership and its potential contribution to global food security.
"I congratulate Professor Huang for being awarded this prestigious National Science Foundation funding. His research efforts will improve soyabean yields and productivity, which will help feed the ever-growing population of our planet. It is especially encouraging that this work is being done in collaboration with the government of India which pioneered 'the green revolution' in the 1960s and averted future famines," the Congressman said.
The NSF said the collaborative project aims to develop a smart farming system capable of monitoring, assessing and supporting soybean growth and performance through advanced sensing, wireless communications and artificial intelligence.
The project addresses challenges faced by soyabean farmers in both the United States and India, including pests, crop diseases and increasingly unpredictable weather conditions. Researchers plan to create a smart sensor network combined with NextG-enabled wireless communication and AI-based analytical tools to monitor crops and soil conditions in real time.
According to the NSF abstract, the system is intended to help soybean breeders better understand crop performance and make more informed decisions throughout the breeding process.
The research brings together investigators from the University of Memphis, the University of Missouri, Kennesaw State University, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's National Soybean Research Institute.
The research has three principal components. The first focuses on developing sensor arrays capable of measuring soil nutrients, moisture and environmental conditions.
The second seeks to design energy-efficient wireless communication systems using drone-supported data collection and passive sensing technologies for large-scale field monitoring.
The third will develop multimodal large language models that combine sensor data, drone imagery and environmental information to support crop phenotyping, pest management and yield forecasting.
The NSF said these technologies will ultimately be integrated into a single toolkit combining sensing, wireless communications and artificial intelligence to generate data-driven agricultural insights for farmers and researchers.
Beyond the technological advances, the agency said the project is expected to strengthen interdisciplinary research, workforce development and scientific collaboration between the United States and India.
It will also support training for students in agriculture, engineering and artificial intelligence while helping develop high-yielding, pest-resistant soyabean varieties that could improve food security and rural economies in both countries.
India and the United States have steadily expanded scientific cooperation over the past two decades, particularly in areas such as agriculture, clean energy, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Collaborative research has become an important pillar of the broader India-U.S. strategic partnership.
Soyabean is one of the world's most important agricultural commodities, providing protein for food and animal feed as well as edible oil. Both countries are investing in precision agriculture and AI-enabled farming technologies to improve productivity while addressing the growing challenges posed by climate change, resource constraints and global food demand.
Source: IANS
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