Agtel Grants Awarded

ADEC recently announced the winners of this year's Agricultural Telecommunications Program grants. Nebraska received two grants this year. Following is a summary of one of the projects CIT will be involved in developing.

Title of Project: Internet2 Applications to Enhance the Management of Natural and Agro-ecosystems. Project Director: Dan Cotton. Co-PIs: Charles Shapiro, Patrick E. Reece, Dennis McCallister, Martha Mamo, Walter H. Schacht, Elizabeth Walter-Shea, Shashi B. Verma, all of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The project will demonstrate how wireless networking and Internet2 applications can combine to strengthen the ability of the agricultural community to conduct real-time research, education, and extension. Nebraska will collect content-specific data from key research sites throughout the state using wireless network services. Data will be collected, transported and input to applications that will organize and archive data, interpret it, and prepare educational and informational products for use by audiences, each with unique needs and uses. We expect to effectively demonstrate how wireless networking can benefit the land-grant community by taking raw data (the commodity) and producing a series of value-added visually enhanced educational products. This work will contribute significantly to the research agenda of the ADEC "Advanced Internet Satellite Extension Project" (AISEP). We expect to increase a researcher's ability to interpret and present complex information to other researchers, students, and clientele.

The three research projects and associated applications/learning modules include: 1) Improved Efficiencies of Nitrogen and Irrigation Management; 2) Grazing Behavior of Cattle in the Nebraska Sandhills; Carbon Sequestration and Global Climate Change.