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SLU Helps Establish Farm, Advance Minority Participation in STEM

by Carrie Beberemeyer on 05/29/2019

05/29/2019

Thanks to a U.S. Department of Education grant to Harris-Stowe State University (HSSU) to increase minority participation in STEM fields, with sub-grants to SLU, faculty and students from the two universities planted a garden on HSSU’s campus on Monday, May 20. 

SLU and HSSU plant a farm

The researchers will study the effect of climate change on crops using machine learning, drone imaging and other tools. Photo credit:  Denale Powell 

HSSU was awarded the Minority Science Engineering Improvement Program grant to increase student engagement in academics, campus life and foster strong student-faculty interactions, as well as support student and faculty research. As a part of this work, they are establishing an agriculture exhibit and farm on HSSU’s campus, near SLU’s Il Monastero.

SLU will support Harris-Stowe in this work through a sub-grant awarded to Vasit Sagan, Ph.D., associate professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at SLU, who has provided workshops and training, including work with remote sensing, imaging, GIS, statistics machine learning and mathematical modeling. On Sagan’s team, post-doc Nicole Gosselin, Ph.D., will lead the SLU portion of the project.

HSSU farm

Students and faculty members from HSSU and SLU planted crops that will be a part of a research project to study the effects of climate change. Photo credit:  Denale Powell 

Another partner on the grant, Bayer, has provided seeds, taken samples for soil tests, helped prepare the land and assisted with planting. They also will partner with HSSU in training students and faculty members.

The researchers will study the effect of climate change on crops using machine learning, drone imaging and other tools.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to partner with our neighbor, Harris-Stowe, to tackle issues around climate change and food security as we work to support and encourage minority participation in STEM fields,” Sagan said. “Working together with Bayer scientists, this is a great partnership for St. Louis.”