UGA receives federal grant to study turfgrass water conservation using artificial intelligence

According to a report by Ashley N. Biles at the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, University of Georgia (UGA), researchers at UGA (along with collaborators from Rutgers and University of California) recently received a five-year, $4 million Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to study the application of artificial intelligence for water usage in turfgrass management.

Called “Mobile Remote Sensing and Artificial Intelligence – Guided Precision Management Program for Turfgrass Water Conservation,” the study will include researchers from three UGA campuses — Gerald Henry in Athens, David Jespersen and Clint Waltz on the UGA Griffin campus, and Brian Schwartz and Jing Zhang on the UGA Tifton campus — as well as groups from Rutgers and University of California, Riverside. The project will focus on developing a mobile sensing system that is able to collect a suite of data, including soil, environmental and turf characteristics under different irrigation programs for both warm- and cool-season turfgrasses.

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