Illinois Digital Agriculture Summer Course - Center for Digital Agriculture

OVERVIEW

Students in the new Illinois Digital Agriculture Summer Course work over two weeks of lectures and hands-on activities on various topics revolving around digital agriculture. Students will be mentored by faculty and staff members from the crop sciences, animal sciences, and computer science departments in multiple activities on topics like computer coding, data science, IoT, and modern remote sensing technologies. This course is designed to integrate various disciplines, and the discussions are centered around a variety of real-world problems. On the last day of the course, participants will be challenged to develop a solution to a digital agriculture problem in an inspiring 24-hour Hackathon.

ADMISSIONS

We invite you to apply to the Illinois Digital Agriculture Summer Course if you are:

At least 16 years-old by the program starting date, and
Entering your sophomore, junior, or senior year of high school or will be a first-year student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign or Parkland College in Fall 2022.

We strongly encourage the participation of traditionally underrepresented ethnic groups, under-resourced communities, first-generation college students, students currently attending a high school with historically low admittance rates to top-tier institutions, and/or students with disabilities to apply.

Admission decisions take into consideration your high school grades, essay, and recommendation from a former high school teacher.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

Teacher recommendation form
Online application form – High School students
Online application form – UIUC first-year students
High School transcript (unofficial transcripts are accepted)
- Email your transcripts to Dr. Isabella Condotta at icfsc@illinois.edu and Dr. Hamze Dokoohaki at hamzed@illinois.edu.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

The deadline to submit your application and supplemental materials is Friday, July 1, 2022

Decisions will be made, and applicants will receive notification of acceptance status within two weeks of the application date.

SCHEDULE

The course is a FREE virtual experience. The course dates are weekdays from July 25^th to August 5^th, 2022.

TOPICS

Coding
Precision Agriculture
Precision Management of Animals
Machine Learning
Image Processing
Signal Processing
Remote Sensing
Robotics
APSIM
IoT
Edge Processing

Morning Sessions: theory and invited speakers

9:00 – 09:10 AM         Morning announcements
9:10 – 10:00 AM         Session
10:00 – 10:30 AM       Break
10:30 – 11:20 AM        Session
11:20 – 11:50 AM         Break
11:50 – 12:30 PM        Session

Lunch

12:30 – 1:30 PM Lunch Break

Evening Sessions: hands-on activities

1:30 – 3:00 PM Hands-on learning
3:00 – 3:30 PM Break
3:30 – 5:00 PM Hands-on learning

24-hour Hackathon

Real-world problems that students will have to solve will be released on Monday, July 25^th. On that same day, the Hackathon groups will be formed. The Hackathon will happen between 3:30 PM on Thursday, August 4^th, and 3:30 PM on Friday, August 5^th. At that time, groups will present their findings in a 3-minute presentation, and winners will be announced by the end of the day.