Outlook Magazine - Fall 2025

Responding to Rural Needs Support for small towns, agriculture and student mental health

The high-tech future of farming

and student members of UW-Stout’s Artificial Intelligence Club, who are interested in the progression of technology, and how it can change the future of farming and be applied to other areas. The project is funded through a Universities of Wisconsin Innovation Grant. A center devoted to sustainable communities Faculty and students at the Center for Sus tainable Communities are supporting local communities, governments and nonprofit organizations with consulting and projects related to environmental and economic sus tainability, as well as civic engagement. The center aims to improve quality of life through applied research, consultancy and continuing education. Supported by a Fresh water Collaborative of Wisconsin grant, the center provides a range of services, includ ing economic impact analyses, GIS services, assistance with grant writing and planning, community needs assessments, strategic planning, water quality monitoring, and survey design, implementation and analysis. “The goal is for people in the community to bring projects to us that they are interested in having done. It’s a one-stop shop for small communities in the area, with a focus on improving both the natural environment and local economies,” Lee said. Connect with the center today.

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s part of a two-year, cross-disci plinary project, social science Pro fessor Tina Lee and engineering Professor Yuan Xing are leading research in “A Human-Centered Collaborative Approach to Design

ing an Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Net work.” Their aim is to help farmers make informed decisions based on real-time and historical data. Last spring, they launched a survey in collaboration with UW-River Falls’ Survey Research Center. The survey asked area farmers about their current use of precision agricultural technologies, such as sensors to monitor field and weather conditions, robots, drones, GPS equipment for harvesting and planting, livestock monitoring systems and more. The survey also asked which technol ogies farmers were interested in trying, and what features would be the most important. The information was combined with the interviews Lee conducted to inform design work by the engineering team over the summer. To test technology, the team worked with a local farmer who grazes beef cows and Pondview Lavender Farm, in Chippewa Falls, owned by operations and management Lec turer Bob Sworski. The cattle farmer tested a livestock monitoring system with AI capa bilities to track an individual animal’s health, while Pondview tested the Farm-ng Amiga robot — an all-terrain, all-weather battery-op erated micro-tractor designed for 24/7 auto mation in specialty crop farming. Xing and the team presented their research, machinery and prototypes at Mann Valley Farm in River Falls to engineering faculty, college deans, area farmers, AI professionals

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University of Wisconsin-Stout