NSF Org:	TI Translational Impacts
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
Initial Amendment Date:	April 5, 2019
Latest Amendment Date:	April 5, 2019
Award Number:	1923286
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Ruth Shuman rshuman@nsf.gov  (703)292-2160 TI  Translational Impacts TIP  Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships
Start Date:	April 1, 2019
End Date:	September 30, 2020 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$50,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$50,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2019 = $50,000.00
History of Investigator:	Richard Coffman (Principal Investigator) rick@uark.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of Arkansas 1125 W MAPLE ST STE 316 FAYETTEVILLE AR  US  72701-3124 (479)575-3845
Sponsor Congressional District:	03
Primary Place of Performance:	University of Arkansas 4183 Bell Engineering Center Fayetteville AR  US  72701-1201
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	03
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	MECEHTM8DB17
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	I-Corps
Primary Program Source:	01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):
Program Element Code(s):	802300
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.084

ABSTRACT

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the adoption of a new standard for assessing the real-time condition of soil and geomaterials. The occurrence of extreme weather fluctuations and natural disasters have the potential to permanently disrupt modern society and agricultural practices by increasing soil erosion and decreasing usable land, soil fertility, and resistance to pests and disease. Growing populations will place more demand on agricultural production despite constrained amounts of available land. Technologies that assist with better nutrient management, planting, and harvesting techniques will aid in sustainable food production. Additionally, the need for better soil characterization and monitoring techniques are required in light of prominent failures of mine tailings dams. The safety of mining and large earth construction operations may be improved with the adoption of real-time, remote measurements of geomaterials. Lastly, more frequent and intense wildfires have led to more post-wildfire debris flows. Dangers associated with the debris flow potential must be identified and characterized. The optical, non-contact remote measurement technology that will be explored in this project has the potential to impact society as well as several markets and industries, ranging from precision agriculture to mining, hazard mitigation, and construction.

This I-Corps project will explore the applications of optical infrared technology. The specific technology that will be explored was developed at the bench and field scale to remotely measure soil properties. The proposed innovation will advance agricultural and geotechnical engineering practices by enabling remote measurements of soil/crop condition and fertility, as well as static and dynamic soil parameters. Prior to the development of this technology, no method existed to remotely measure soil suction in the field. Because the measurements do not require contact with the soil, nor the collection of soil or water samples, the measurements are non-destructive. Furthermore, the rapidly collected measurements obtained will include many data points over a large area, improving spatial and temporal resolution over conventional point-wise data collection methods. The need to install labor-intensive and cost-prohibitive in situ instrumentation is then eliminated. The proposed technology also has the potential to save time and costs associated with conventional laboratory classification of soil properties and may also improve upon the poor reproducibility of some conventional testing methods.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

Customer discovery was performed to identify the needs of customers in the agriculture industry.  Specifically, the needs of large, family-owned, farms growing irrigated row crops were investigated by performing 117 customer interviews.  Based on the results of the customer interviews, it was determined that implementation of the prototype of the intellectual property that was developed by the project team was too early to market.  The technology that was investigated for product-market fit was an optical, non-contact remote measurement technology.  As presented in during the opening ceremony of the I-Corps, the tagline for the technology was real-time remote sensing of soils and crops.   This I-Corps project explored the applications of optical infrared technology for soil moisture content determination to ensure adequate and precise application of water for crops.  Through the required 100 customer interviews, the project team was able to better understand if global warming and the occurrence of extreme weather fluctuations and natural disasters have the potential to permanently disrupt modern society and agricultural practices by increasing soil erosion and decreasing usable land, soil fertility, and resistance to pests and disease.  Questions like the following were discussed in several interviews.  1) Are growing populations placing more demand on agricultural production despite constrained amounts of available land? 2) Will better nutrient management, planting, and harvesting techniques will aid in sustainable food production?  

Last Modified: 05/10/2022
Modified by: Richard Coffman

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