Grand Challenges Initiative

Our grand challenge is to evaluate whether or not emerging satellite remote sensing tools can be used to infer plant function, particularly with respect to plant water content. We studied patterns of plant water content inferred by Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) from NASA’s SMAP mission and plant water use inferred by Evapotranspiration (ET) using NASA’s

Portable water filtration and storage device. View the full poster here

Water management is crucial for New Mexico as it is one of the driest states. Inefficient allocation of water only worsens water scarcity. Satellite data can measure variables we need for our 3 domains. For ag, evapotranspiration (ET) is compared between pivot and non-pivot irrigation. Evaporative stress index (ESI) is used to measure severity of

Documenting the activity of rarely seen animals can be extremely helpful in putting together conservancy efforts for certain wildlife areas that interfere with human infrastructures. Data was used by collecting pictures and videos from trail cameras in enclosed and not enclosed sunflowers at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy. Findings indicated that more species were founded in

Post-harvest decay is responsible for significant losses in fruit markets. In this project, several resins were made from beeswax in attempt to mitigate post-harvest decay. The resins created provide a cheap, efficient, and biodegradable option for farmers to reduce their post-harvest loss. View the full poster here