addressing The drought

Powdery snow blanketed the Sierras in beautiful icy white this winter, which should be a promising sign to farmers of the arid Central Valley that spring melt is coming to their thirsty fields.

Except there never seems to be enough water for California, a place plagued by droughts, shrinking snowpack and a groundwater deficit.

This water stress is motivating a unique interdisciplinary team headed by UC Merced to develop potentially game-changing advancements in water conservation and sustainable farming by bringing artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to croplands.

This is exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary project that defines UC Merced’s mission.

It’s about enhancing precision agriculture. It’s about artificial intelligence and robotics, agro-economics and structural engineering, climate change and sustainability. And it is preparing students for careers of the future.