CS Prof. Chandra Krintz named 2015 UCSB Faculty Sustainability Champion
Computer Science Professor Chandra Krintz was named the UCSB Faculty Sustainability Champion for the 2015-2016 Academic Year.
Professor Krintz’s proposal to the Academic Senate addressed the problem of sustainable food security and food safety, especially with smaller farms. The system involved with the proposal, called SmartFarm, integrates disparate environmental sensor technologies into a customized open-source cloud-based "data appliance" and new analytics that provide growers with a secure, easy to use, low-cost data analysis and decision support system. Using open-source private cloud platforms, this data appliance can be hosted at a range of scales including personal, private clouds on-farm, large-scale public clouds, or in combination (cloud hybrid). In layman's terms, SmartFarm allows farmers to make better decisions using information collected about the farm's environment.
In Professor Krintz’s award letter, the Academic Senate stated, “…the Academic Senate Sustainability Work Group was impressed and delighted with your proposed course of activities involving…computer science to extract and provide a framework for…the management of agricultural resources, particularly at the level of the small farmer. We are also delighted that this will be developed on a test bed involving local framers and ranchers, as well as engaging students at UCSB both in the development of these tools, and in the larger forum of integrating data management and agriculture.”
The award includes funding in the amount of $25,000.
Congratulations Professor Krintz!
To learn more about Professor Krintz’s work, please visit her website here.