The University of Florida plans a Hillsborough facility for artificial intelligence in agriculture

Share
farm
Sweetwater Organic Farm in Tampa. By Sean Kinane.

The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is gearing up to build a new Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence that would bolster the use of artificial intelligence in agriculture.

The facility is planned to be built in Wimauma, a rural area in Hillsborough County.

A request for proposals published Wednesday for the roughly $20 million construction project said the 34,000-square-foot facility would include “office, research and meeting space” and provide housing for about 32 graduate students.

“The facility will include a state-of-the-art research shop equipped with the equipment necessary to design and build robotic technologies for agriculture, meeting space to be used as a central hub for training in AI and robotic technologies, as well as offices and open concept work areas,” the proposal said.

Robert Gilbert, dean for research at what is commonly known as UF/IFAS, said the facility would be part of an effort to make UF/IFAS “the recognized leader” in the application of artificial intelligence for agriculture.

“The facility and associated faculty will develop programs in robotics, precision agriculture and plant breeding that will accelerate agricultural technologies for not only our strawberry and tomato industries in the region but the breadth of agricultural enterprises around the state,” said Gilbert, who also is director of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of UF/IFAS.

©2023 The News Service of Florida

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

student meal
Next school year Hillsborough public schools are offering free meals

Hillsborough Public Schools are offering students free meals for the...

Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold...

The sound of change: Music’s influence on anti-war and human rights movements

Throughout history, music has served as a powerful catalyst for...

a man in a tye dye shirt talking on a radio microphone
Recreational pot for Florida is on the ballot this fall—let’s talk about it

In four months, Florida voters have the opportunity to vote...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Follow us on Instagram

Democracy Now!
Player position: