AI Institute Artificial Intelligence for Future Agricultural Resilience Management and Sustainability (AIFARMS)

This project brings together researchers in AI and agriculture, combining their expertise to promote advances in agriculture through AI. AIFARMS mission is to use core AI research areas such as computer vision, machine learning, data science, soft object manipulation, and intuitive human-robot interaction to address major challenges in agriculture:

• Sustainable intensification without increased labor
• Efficiency and welfare in animal agriculture
• Environmental resilience in crops
• Soil health 
• Technology adoption

Leading this effort are world-class researchers from our five academic partners, who will direct a team of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, to form a research cohort trained to the highest level in both computer science and agriculture. Joint computer science + agriculture degree programs at BS and Master’s levels will be augmented with AI content to help build a highly qualified workforce.

Our outreach efforts will work to ensure all communities benefit from emerging technologies. We are working to create the AIFARMS Hub, a global clearing house for AI-driven agriculture research to foster and coordinate a large external community around AI-driven innovation in agriculture, with a far broader research agenda than one institute can tackle alone.

The project is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, and several academic institutions, and is hosted by UIUC. Project website

Total project funding to date: 3,839,999
Jingrui He's share of total funding: $7,909