The labyrinth of navigating foreign worker programs is one that is navigated by many … including many here in agbioscience. It’s a dizzying maze of service providers, forms, agencies and advisors, and it’s a system that a new startup connected to Purdue University is seeking to improve. Today we welcome agtech company Croft founder and CEO Scott Prince.
Scott is no stranger to startups. He gets into his passion for starting and growing businesses, what Croft aims to solve through innovation and what it would mean for the challenge to go un-solved. Farms struggle to find seasonal talent to help their operations run efficiently and Scott dives into the H2A program, the experience for the farm operator and the employee and how this streamlined option creates better trusting work relationships on both sides.
So why does an IU grad get into a venture studio at Purdue University? Scott gets into the go-to-market resources and opportunity to collaborate with a base of professionals that allow them to accelerate quickly and optimize their product. He also talks Indiana’s agtech ecosystem and what’s ahead for Croft.
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Technology to support corn and soybean field monitoring
Intelinair and Eiwa today announced that they have entered into a multi-year research collaboration and distribution agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Eiwa will license drone analytic technology of corn and soybean fields from Intelinair on Eiwa Vault’s analytics library, for the benefit of Eiwa’s research customers in the United States and South America. The technology will help monitor and assess early season corn and soybean fields.
“Through this agreement, Eiwa users in the United States and South America will be able to use our drone analytics not just in commercial farms, but also in research plot applications,” says Intelinair Global Business Leader Orlando Saez. “Eiwa has strict specifications for corn and soybean plant height and counts across research plots and on-farm trials. We are excited our analytics have been extensively tested to satisfy the accuracy needed under a wide range of field conditions in less time to increase enterprise value for our customers.”
Carlos Hirsch, CRO for Eiwa, says, “This marks an important new phase for Eiwa and its customers, as we open our Analytics Library to also offer analytics from the best providers in the industry. Through this collaboration with Intelinair, we can provide our customers worldwide with a broader and more comprehensive drone analytic offering from a market leader directly from our Eiwa Vault platform. We hope this is only the beginning of a long and successful partnership.”
Other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
gBETA is a free, seven-week accelerator for early-stage companies with local roots. Each program is capped at five teams, and requires no fees and no equity.
Purdue alumni founders’ goal is for users to collectively become the largest farm in the world without owning any land
A startup company founded by Purdue University alumni has received funding from the state of Indiana to advance the manufacture of its products.
Heliponix LLC, doing business as anu™ (previously gropod®), has received a $200,000 Indiana Manufacturing Readiness Grants (MRG) award to mass manufacture its aeroponic seed pod consumables.
Manufacturing Readiness Grants are provided by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and administered by Conexus Indiana and the Next Level Manufacturing Institute. They are available to Indiana manufacturers willing to make capital investments to integrate smart technologies and processes that improve capacity, productivity and competitiveness. Launched in 2020, the MRG program has supported tech-enabled investment in smart manufacturing all around the state.
Anu, founded by Purdue Polytechnic Institute alumni Scott Massey and Ivan Ball, sells a smart garden appliance. The small, fully automated, in-home greenhouse grows daily servings of produce from subscription seed pods.
Aeroponics is a form of hydroponics, or growing plants without soil. Massey said the pods empower consumers to grow fresh, high-quality produce including most leafy green vegetables, culinary herbs, ornamental/flowering plants and an increasing number of fruiting plant varieties such as peppers, tomatoes and more in a controlled environment.
“Our cultivation chambers use deep-learning, computer-vision algorithms to produce higher yields than other controlled-environment agriculture technology,” Massey said. “The chambers consume less energy and more than 95 percent less water than conventional field farming. With zero use of pesticides or preservatives, they represent an environmentally friendly solution for year-round accelerated growing.”
Massey said the funding will allow anu to scale a sustainable platform for consumers by supplying growers with recurring seed pod subscriptions.
“This funding has dramatically increased our ability to manufacture these seed pods, but in a volume that will quickly outpace the collective yields of the largest farms in the world,” Massey said. “It further accelerates our pursuit to collectively become the largest farm in the world without owning any land.”
Mitch Landess, vice president of innovation and digital transformation at Conexus Indiana, said manufacturing entrepreneurship, especially when it involves technology, is vital for Indiana.
“Small firms founded and led by entrepreneurs that leverage the resources around them and form credible partnerships are interesting to the Manufacturing Readiness Grants program,” Landess said. “The mix of intellectual property, local venture capital, Small Business Innovation Research funding and participation of larger manufacturing partners made it easy to support anu’s investment in production technology.”
Conexus Indiana recently named Massey to the Conexus Indiana Rising 30 Class of 2023, which recognizes distinguished advanced manufacturing and logistics professionals under the age of 30.
Massey said he and his colleagues at anu appreciate support from Conexus for the Rising 30 recognition and from the IEDC for the $200,000 Manufacturing Readiness Grants award.
“It was only a few years ago that I was a Purdue University student with an idea and the drive to bring it to the market — to empower everyone to grow their own produce. Conexus has done a phenomenal job extending these resources and recognition to make this idea a reality as we continue growing our highly experienced team, creating jobs and attracting more talent to the great state of Indiana,” Massey said.
“Indiana’s support for small businesses is not just unparalleled, but Indiana’s long-standing history of advanced manufacturing has resulted in it being the best possible headquarter base for us.”
There will be more than 13,000 job openings annually across the U.S. for data scientists until 2031 – that’s according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics who also shares the median wages for those jobs will be more than 100,000 dollars. These numbers are big and they are across agbioscience. Dr. Sofia Brandariz Zerboni, Senior Data Scientist with Bayer, joins us to share her perspective on the opportunity and new partnerships making data science more accessible to companies and students across the Midwest.
Sofia talks about data science informing better decision making, Bayer’s approach to innovation and the average day of a data scientist in agbioscience. She gets into the company’s partnership with The Data Mine at Purdue University and enabling students from various backgrounds to understand the application of data science in the agbioscience. Diving into data making a better world, Sofia shares her advice for young people considering their career and agbioscience being a good fit for them.
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Rankings are important. They provide a quick measure of relative strength, but sometimes the story of how those rankings were made possible are lost. Today’s guest has invested more than three decades delivering the work to make rankings like #3 college of agriculture in North America and #1 Agricultural and Biological Engeering graduate program a reality. He’s a great partner for agbioscience innovators and he is the new Dean of the Purdue University College of Agriculture — Dr. Bernie Engel.
Bernie gets into Purdue’s growth story in the years he’s served at the university, their big focus on driving innovation and entrepreneurship and looking beyond agbioscience in the College of Agriculture. He talks about his deep connection to engineering, Purdue’s unique strength in partnerships and bringing those together to grow and accelerate meaningful connections.
How will Purdue continue working to meet the talent needs of a growing agbioscience industry? Bernie gets into the sector’s pace of change and helping students to adapt to that as they enter the workforce. He also talks about Purdue’s innovation portfolio, research paving the way for it to happen and what’s ahead at Purdue University’s College of Agriculture.
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Intelinair announced today a multi-year collaboration agreement with Solvi to further expand its AGMRI platform by providing corn and soybean growers proven and reliable stand counts for the early crop growth stages.
“By combining our suite of drone image collection and analytics with Solvi’s advanced plant-counting algorithms, our new service will further expand our offering in plant population inspections,” said Tim Hassinger, CEO and President of Intelinair. “Through this collaboration, we can provide timely and highly accurate stand counts via the TrueCause™ drone scouting tool on anything from research plots to large operations.”
The following principles have been applied to Intelinair’s expanded offering:
Data-mined. TrueCause™ intelligent drone mission planning and stand count visualization taps Solvi’s AI-powered image classification models that quickly analyze large, complex datasets. These algorithms recognize and predict plant architecture patterns for fast, reliable insights.
Accurate. Plant Count models were trained on corn and soybean fields to recognize geolocated crop nuances, especially in critical early growth crop stages, supporting most planting configurations, including twin rows.
Relevant. The system delivers the actual stand for yield potential, as well as predicting replant units needed in a timely manner for replanting seeding prescriptions.
“Our Plant Counts tool, powered by PlantAI™, accurately identifies, counts, and classifies acres of plant shapes from done images in minutes,” said Igor Tihonov, CEO of Solvi. “While the technology behind the scenes uses sophisticated AI algorithms exclusively trained on thousands of agricultural images, Intelinair’s user interface simplifies the entire process for complex workflows or large commercial operations.”
For more information on how to simplify plant counting or to schedule a demonstration, go to Intelinair.com or email [email protected].
Renewable fuels and oils – those made from plants – are expected to grow more than tenfold in the next decade in the U.S. alone. Today’s guest is a veteran of the industry and has a unique view of the role plants and agbioscience can and will play in the energy transition. Doug Berven, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at POET, join us to talk about the company’s evolution from family farm struggling to make it to 35 years later being the largest bio-processor in the United States — and the largest biofuels producer in the world.
Doug also talks about the opportunity at the intersection of biofuels and fossil fuels, electrification’s role in the energy transition and getting more resources from the surface of our land rather than from the center of the Earth. He also talks about the potential for agriculture globally being currently untapped, creating market conditions for countries dependent on agriculture to succeed with biofuels and our ability to feed the world (and then some) while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change through the production of biofuels.
What can we learn from ethanol’s emergence in the early 2000s? Doug dives into its rejuvenation of rural America, expanding that impact globally and what’s ahead for this growing piece of the agbioscience economy (including the opportunities for decarbonization).
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The Indiana State Fair starts Friday, July 28 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and Event Center. The multi-week event has plenty of opportunities to discover and shop local products at the Indiana Grown Marketplace in The Mercantile, in the Agriculture/Horticulture building.
“Supporting local has never tasted so good,” said Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, who also serves as Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “Not only can you support the hardworking Hoosiers by visiting the Indiana Grown Marketplace, but you can also savor the diverse flavors of our state. That is worth the visit!”
Shoppers can be immersed in a storefront solely featuring products grown, processed, packaged or produced in Indiana with product samples available Friday to Sunday starting at 11 a.m.
Interested in learning more about Indiana Grown businesses and growing practices? In addition to educational displays, Indiana Grown members are eager to speak with visitors and hold demonstrations to showcase their craft.
The 2023 Indiana Grown Marketplace will be the largest yet, with nearly 100vendors and over 600 unique products, including hand-crafted sauces, salsas, drink mixes, popcorn, spices and more. Shoppers can also find ready-to-eat products like cured meats, chocolates and candies.
Does the August heat have you down? Stop at the Indiana Grown store for cold kombucha, milk, collagen water or bottled tea. There are also a variety of artisan made products you can use daily such as, wool dryer balls, yarn, skincare regimens, hand poured candles and more.
Fairgoers have been asking for Indiana Grown apparel for awhile, so we are excited to partner with the United State of Indiana, a local Indianapolis apparel company to make that a reality! You can find Indiana Grown t-shirts, sweatshirts and market totes available for purchase in the Indiana Grown Marketplace.
“The Indiana Grown Marketplace at the Indiana State Fair is an excellent opportunity for our members to promote their products, while allowing consumers the chance to actively support local Hoosier businesses,” said Don Lamb, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. “I hope you will join me at the Indiana Grown Marketplace where we can indulge in the best local products found in our state.”
Indiana Grown is excited to welcome you to shop and explore at the Indiana Grown Marketplace at the Indiana State Fair. The Indiana State Fair runs until Sunday, Aug. 20 (closed Mondays and Tuesdays) and The Mercantile, where the Indiana Grown Marketplace is located, is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Mercantile is located to the right of the Midway.
