Partnering with Universities to Advance the Oldest and Newest Professions: Agriculture and Technology

Last month we had the great pleasure of opening the Bayer Crop Science Innovation Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This partnership drives forward the confluence of agronomic and data science excellence by fostering innovation through education, with students collaborating on projects that leverage their agricultural technology skills and advance agriculture through applied research. Fittingly, just down the road from our innovation center, you can find The Morrow Plots, the oldest agricultural research trials in the Western Hemisphere, and if you keep going, you will find Blue Waters, one of the most powerful supercomputers.

Combining Plant Science and Computer Science to Advance Digital Tools and Insights from Farm Data

The University of Illinois provides a unique blend of excellence in agronomic and plant science research, with leading computer science and data analytics capabilities, in the heart of the most productive agricultural systems on the planet. Within the plant and crop sciences, the University combines strength that can help advance our understanding of important interactions between plant breeding, different inputs to the cropping system, along with the impacts of a drought, temperature and greenhouse gases in a changing climate on crop production. Beyond plant and crop science excellence, the University of Illinois houses the collective brain power of one of the best computer science and engineering programs globally.

We are committed to the continued advancement of emerging technologies and skill sets that are critical to the success of modern agriculture. This Innovation Center is an opportunity for us to invest in the next generation of innovators to help solve agriculture’s most pressing challenges. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with the UIUC, among many other universities, to bring together a breadth of expertise and work together to make farming more productive in the face of a changing climate.

Click here for more information about student opportunities at the Innovation Center. For more information on additional internships at Climate LLC, please visit: https://climate.com/careers.

At the Innovation Center Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Climate’s Chief Science Officer, Sam Eathington shares some advice with current UIUC students