The Agricultural and Biological Engineering department at the University of Florida is introducing its new Advanced SmartAg Certificate.
This graduate engineering certificate will offer training in various topical areas relevant to modern computation-based innovations in agriculture, termed SmartAg. Being identified as the nexus of future technology development in agriculture, SmartAg combines aspects of previous trends including precision agriculture, digital agriculture, agriculture 4.0, agriculture Internet of Things (IoT), and big data into a new paradigm that brings together technical expertise and supports from across engineering disciplines.
Certificate Tier Structure
This certificate will have a tiered course structure that introduces students to precision agriculture, instrumentation, and control methods in SmartAg application concepts.
Students interested in this certificate can customize their course of study to their area of focus or interest. In addition to customizing this certificate, this three-tier course sequence includes three required courses on precision agriculture, agricultural engineering research instrumentation, and SmartAg systems control methods.
Tier 1
- AOM5435: Advanced Precision Agriculture
- ABE6031: Instrumentation in Agricultural Engineering Research
Tier II
- ABE5009: Control Methods in SmartAg Systems
Tier III (Choose Two)*
- ABE5038: Fundamentals and Applications of Biosensors
- ABE5152: Advanced Fluid Power Circuits and Control
- ABE6005: Applied Control for Automation and Robotics
- ABE6035: Advanced Remote Sensing: Science and Sensors
- ABE6645C: Computer Simulation of Crop Growth and Management Responses
- ABE6933: Statistical Machine Learning
- ABE6933: Logistics of Agricultural Food Chains
- GIS6116: GIS Analysis
* Other classes to be added
Tier I courses of this certificate will introduce precision agriculture concepts (i.e. data collection and mapping, yield monitoring, prescription application, temporal and spatial variability of soil moisture, and crop factors) and agricultural engineering research instrumentation (i.e. data analysis, systems characterization, uncertainty analysis, analog and digital devices and circuits, and sensors). The tier II course will introduce students to fundamental computational control approaches (i.e. decision support, fuzzy logic, neural networks, classifiers, process control, and motion control applied to agriculture).
In addition to this new certificate, the ABE department will be premiering a new course titled “ABE5009: Control Methods in SmartAg Systems.”
The coordination of this certificate has been led by Agricultural and Biological Engineering Professor Tom Burks and will debut in Fall 2021. The Control Methods in SmartAg Systems course will be available in Spring 2021. The certificate oversight committee will include Dr. Burks, Dr. Kiker, Dr. Fraisse, Dr. Watson, Dr. Lee, and Dr. Bliznyuk.
Download Dr. Burks’ detailed description of this certificate to learn more.
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