A joint workshop between N.C. A&T’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and N.C. State University gave undergraduates from a variety of disciplines a hands-on look at the ways precision livestock farming and artificial intelligence can create better living conditions for hogs.
From animal science to computer science, students attending the Transdisciplinary Experiential Learning (TEL) Summer Workshop learned ways that precision agriculture can improve swine production and animal production at large. Held Aug. 17-19 at the University Farm Pavilion, the workshop is part of the USDA-funded Proactive Pig Production (P3) project, a collaboration between N.C. A&T, NCSU and Iowa State University.
“The P3 program focuses on looking at problems that we need to solve for the swine industry using novel technologies associated with AI,” said Mulumbet Worku, Ph.D., professor of animal sciences and biotechnologies in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design. “This animal behavior may be relevant to us and our problem-solving solutions: in animal science, you’re looking at animal behavior; in bioengineering, we’re looking at how animals respond.”
CAES and NCSU faculty and graduate speakers introduced the student participants to core concepts in digital agriculture through workshop sessions, a tour of the University Farm, and hands-on activities such as assembling a programmable logic controller, a device used to help regulate temperature in swine housing.
“The animal experiences a lot of heat stress due to heat waves and weather moving into the southeastern area,” said Lingjuan Wang Li, Ph.D. WNR Distinguished University Professor at NCSU. “We, as a team, believe that the animal is the best sensor: when they are under distress, or cold stress or heat stress, they will be able to show us. With AI, the technology is there to observe and translate that into action.”
Worku said the workshop's transdisciplinary approach would help promote further career opportunities for students regardless of their major.
"The purpose meets a need in the industry,” said Worku. “We had students from animal science, from agribusiness and economics, Ph.Ds., undergraduate students, graduate students. We had students who were in psychology, the arts, non-traditional areas. We wanted the students to see how we are interacting together to solve a problem using precision livestock approaches.”
Brianna Thorpe, a psychology student at N.C. A&T, said that she had aspired to be a veterinarian as a child.
“This experience has taught me a lot about agriculture and about using innovative technologies to broaden our perspectives on animal culture and animal science,” said Thorpe. “This is not my major, but ... it’s still important to know what we’re consuming and to be able to take care of the animals we have here, of climate change and the environmental factors that go into animals' reactions.”
