Excellence in Research/Collaborative Research: Smart Technology-enabled Nutrient Lifecycle and Supply Chain Management for Microgreens

这项卓越研究奖（EiR）支持研究工程师下一代智能技术，以改善微绿色作物的农场到餐桌的食品管理。 微绿植物是只生长到幼年阶段的可食用植物。 众所周知，这些蔬菜营养丰富;然而，它们的生产周期很短，很容易腐烂。 该项目代表了三所大学之间的合作，研究支持种植，收获和运输的方法，以确保向消费者提供高质量的营养产品。 该项目将研究生长培养基的影响，并整合实验和商业生产平台的数据收集。 该项目的目标是发现支持整个微绿生命周期优化的方法，为消费者提供营养食品。项目团队将整合植物生物学，大规模食品种植和易腐产品供应链管理方面的专业知识。 研究活动包括：（1）调查不同生长介质对微绿中有益植物化学物质的作用;（2）探索代谢途径，以确定提高选择营养素含量的条件;（3）收集微绿种植和收获方法的数据;以及（4）开发多尺度模型，以优化从生产到消费者的微绿供应链。合作的PI将使用在不同时间尺度的多个系统中收集的数据将生物学研究与种植和收获研究整合起来。 利用智能技术，包括传感器和数据分析，这些研究将导致建立一个最佳的农场到餐桌的供应网络。 该项目将扩大合作机构的研究能力，并提供教育和指导机会，以培养HBCU毕业生更好地准备进入研究队伍。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This Excellence in Research (EiR) award supports research to engineer next-generation smart technology to improve farm-to-table food management of microgreen crops. Microgreens are edible plants that are only grown to the juvenile stage. These greens are known to have dense nutrients; however, they have a short production cycle and are easily perishable. This project represents a collaboration among three universities to study methods to support cultivation, harvesting, and transport in order to ensure the delivery of a high-quality nutritional product to the consumer. The project will investigate the effects of growth media and integrate data collection across experimental and commercial production platforms. The project's objective is to discover methods that support the optimization of the entire microgreen life cycle to deliver nutritious food to consumers.The project team will integrate expertise in plant biology, large scale food cultivation, and supply chain management of perishable products. The research activities include (1) investigation of the role of different growth media on beneficial phytochemicals in microgreens; (2) exploration of the metabolic pathways to identify conditions that boost amounts of select nutrients; (3) data collection on the cultivation and harvesting methods of microgreens; and (4) development of multiscale models to optimize the microgreen supply chain from production to consumer. The collaborating PIs will integrate biological studies with cultivation and harvesting studies using data collected across multiple systems with different time scales. Using smart technology, including sensors and data analytics, these studies will lead to establishing an optimal farm-to-table supply network. The project will expand the research capabilities of the collaborating institutions and provide educational and mentoring opportunities to produce HBCU graduates better prepared to enter the research workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.