April 14th, 2025 – A team of Missouri University of Science and Technology researchers, trained by the NSF I-Corps Hub: Great Lakes Region, has been awarded a $1 million Partnerships for Innovation (PFI-RP) grant. The team includes Dr. Sajal Das, Dr. Vishesh Tanwar, Dr. Ian Kaplan, and Dr. Jeffrey Stein.
The project, Smart Connected Farms: Pest Management in Agriculture through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), aims to develop an automated pest management system for rural farms. The technology utilizes bug traps, drones, data, and AI to predict pest migration patterns and provide recommendations to farmers.
Our digital pest monitoring technology offers a scalable and cost-effective alternative to the traditional, labor-intensive pest management practices. Leveraging AI and the internet of things (IoT) enables near-real-time monitoring of pest/insect presence and pressure and their migration patterns to deliver proactive, actionable recommendations and decision support tools development for pest management. Our technology will empower farmers to make data-driven decisions to increase crop yields. Additionally, the technology will generate valuable data that can inform future advancements in agricultural biotechnology. -Dr. Sajal Das
The teams’ prototype utilizes traps, sensors, data, and AI to make real-time pest management recommendations to farmers.
The National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) program offers researchers the opportunity to perform translational research and technology development to accelerate discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace for societal benefit. As part of the program, teams collaborate with industry partners to advance and develop their technology.
The Missouri University of Science and Technology team is excited to collaborate with Bayer, Microsoft, and Purdue University on the project. With these partnerships and funds, the team plans to conduct a large-scale pilot of their system and validate its effectiveness in national and international farms. Previously, the team has participated in the Missouri S&T’s local I-Corps program, the Great Lakes I-Corps Hub’s regional I-Corps Jumpstart program, and the rigorous National NSF I-Corps program. Throughout these programs, the team conducted over 100 customer interviews and validated the product-market fit for their pest control technology. With robust partners and support, the team is poised to revolutionize data-driven agricultural pest management.
The latest information on PFI can be found on the NSF website: www.nsf.gov
Read more about the technology: https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MC.2023.3335254
Interested in I-Corps? View our upcoming programs: https://greatlakesicorps.org/coming-events/
