UCSB RaceLab

Nevena Golubovic and Kyle Jorgensen from the RACELab led a technical team in the inaugural "Apps for Ag" Hackathon — an event designed to focus computer science research on the problems of sustainability, resource conservation, and food safety in agriculture.

Using the IoT (Internet of Things) and cloud computing techniques that are the basis for their research, they developed a prototype of SWARM — a mobile application for detecting pest infestations in the field. SWARM was awarded first place by a panel of agricultural policy, technology, and business leaders chaired by Catherine J.K. Sandoval, Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission.

Nevena and Kyle are members of the RACELab, where students and researchers study novel cloud computing, Big Data, and IoT systems and applications. Their work is part of the SmartFarm project.

Team co-leader Nevena Golubovic stated, "Working with people from different disciplines and finding a common language was a challenging but fun process. Thorough discussion and insights from mentors were extremely valuable, and participation from each team member made SWARM a winning application!"

Team co-leader Kyle Jorgensen added, "It was a fantastic experience to bring our problem solving skills to a relatively unfamiliar field. We learned a tremendous amount from our agricultural technology mentors and collaborated with a great team to develop an app that can really make a difference for farmers."

The inaugural hackathon was held April 17-19, 2015 in Coalinga, California. For more information about the event, please visit the "Apps for Ag" Hackathon website, or read more about the event here.