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CHICAGO The COVID-19 pandemic not only triggered lots of difficulties for people, it also provided opportunities.

Its been a very difficult time for people not only here, but around the world, and people have rallied to try to do their best to navigate the situation, said Kim Kidwell, dean of the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.

What is fabulous about this situation is the research we do became more obvious to people, said Kidwell during a presentation at The Chicago Farmers meeting. People didnt understand what U of I Extension does or whats done in the College of ACES thats helpful for their everyday lives.

For example, Extension already had a listing of Illinois food banks.

It didnt take long to put that information on a website, Kidwell said. There were some people that never sought a food bank before that wanted to know where to get food in their local community.

Access to 4-H programs also was expanded last year.

Some was difficult to do online, but it also offered people who couldnt get to events to participate online, Kidwell said. Weve realized that some hybrid opportunities of in-person and online will serve well to expand access.

A lot of engagement is now happening with digital agriculture.

Our farmdoc is one of the best examples of a successful digital program in the country and it has been around for 20 years, Kidwell said. They were early innovators to provide real-time information to growers on a daily basis so they can make decisions on what to do on their farms.

One Of A Kind

Students at the U of I have the opportunity to study a new major.

The Metropolitan Food and Environmental Systems major is designed to bring people in that may not come from an ag background, Kidwell said. Its the first undergraduate major of its kind focused on all the components of the system and the goal is to breakdown the silos between the disciplines and have students be versed in all aspects of the food system.

Food system reliance was a big issue during the pandemic.

This major is designed to take a look at some of these things not only locally, but at the national level, as well, Kidwell said. Graduates from this program will drive innovation and work with infrastructure and policy changes in the food and agricultural space.

Connections, Kidwell said, is the super power of the College of ACES.

We love to do things that matter to people, she said. We have a system on campus that provides lots of opportunity for us to discover things, to ground test them and to de-risk them before they go into commercial channels.

The U of I Research Park includes about 120 companies.

This is where academia meets industry, Kidwell said. We hope some of the discoveries we make on campus come to life with our industry partners so we can ground test them in our field space adjacent to campus.

The Future Is Now

A couple of years ago, the College of ACES and the Grainger College of Engineering worked together to develop the Center for Digital Agriculture, which resulted in a couple of new majors computer science plus crop science and computer science plus animal science.

Its fabulous to see engineers talk to crop and animal scientists and visa versa, Kidwell said. Theyve opened each others eyes to possibilities.

Data analytics is a big component of the center, as well as automation and precision agriculture.

Were building an online program for digital agriculture that should launch in about a year, Kidwell said.

A 4-acre autonomous farm has been established on campus.

It has all kinds of high-tech equipment like robots that can go between rows of corn, Kidwell said. The robots do exciting things like identify weeds through facial recognition software and shoot lasers at the weeds to kill them.

The goal of these projects is improve farmer productivity, as well as improve environmental safety and sustainability.

Its high-tech agriculture, and urban gardening is a big part of this, including fruit harvesting with mechanical robots, Kidwell said.

We have an aspirational goal to create an Extension and public engagement enterprise that is the envy of our peers, she said. We want to create a southern portal to campus that is a destination.

One of Kidwells favorite places on the U of I campus is the Arboretum.

We did a master plan for the Arboretum to elevate it to a more visible asset for the U of I with more pathways, demonstration areas for teaching, hospitality space for weddings and the creation of a home for Extension, she said.

Currently, Extension is located at six places on campus.

We would like to have a new facility as the heartbeat of Extension, Kidwell said. This building will be the go-to place for people to connect to teach, learn and engage with the community.

The goal is to kick the project off in the next couple of months through a fundraising campaign.

Were excited for this space to cultivate engagement and host events for 4-H, master gardeners and for kids to come here to learn, Kidwell said.

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Connections are the superpower of the College of ACES - Agri News