By EMMA HOPKINS-O’BRIEN

Indiana Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — At the National FFA Convention that ended on Oct. 27, student members were able to experience something new to the event: An exhibit and presentation devoted to innovation in agricultural technology called the Blue Room.

AgriNovus Indiana, the state’s initiative to grow innovation in agriculture, and Microsoft were the two lead sponsors of the much-anticipated Blue Room experience, which aimed to get FFA students thinking about the technological side of agriculture.

Libby Fritz, director of communication and engagement at AgriNovus, explained the Blue Room was designed specifically to tell the story of agriculture in the biosciences to students and make them aware of how to get involved or even build a career around ag technology.

“We want to get kids thinking about how innovation and technology are implemented on the farm,” Fritz said. “We love that Microsoft occupied this room as well. So hopefully the room is just exciting and getting people to think about the convergence of industries, and how it’s all happening here in ag biosciences.”

Microsoft made many of the physical high-tech elements of the room possible. Microsoft spokesman Jason Kravitz said the company believes it will be critical that future leaders learn advanced digital skills necessary to operate and build on technologies used in ag today, such as those applied in precision ag, Big Data (extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations), cloud technology, robotic systems and other sophisticated technologies.

“Microsoft decided to sponsor the National FFA Convention’s Blue Room to expose and inspire national FFA youth to the breadth of innovations in agriculture,” Kravitz said. “FFA students across America will lead the food and agriculture industry into the future. They must have opportunities to integrate digital skills into both their classroom studies and project-based learning. Our partnership will help ensure that these young leaders can use technology to drive innovation in the farms of the future, sustain and renew our planet, and enrich their communities.”

The room occupied 17,000 square feet in the Indianapolis Convention Center and showcased ag technology booth-style. Students were let in an hour before presentations started to browse booths and exhibits. Technology such as 3-D printers, vertically-stacked hydroponic lettuce systems, large touch-screens, interactive digital displays and virtual reality experiences were showcased to more than 4,000 FFA students during the convention. Four hundred students per session were privy to 10-minute TED talks about agriculture’s grand challenges – feeding the world, sustaining the environment and others – and how technology can work as solutions to those challenges. TED talks are short presentations by an expert in a specific field.

The Blue Room was a hit at the convention, but Fritz said planners are preparing to turn elements of the room into Blue 365, an online resource based which will be available year-round. Kravitz explained Blue 365 is part of a larger partnership between Microsoft and National FFA to develop a technology curriculum for its more than 650,000 members to usher in ag innovation.

“From an FFA perspective, this is just a room at the convention, but it will go beyond that – they’re going to create Blue 365, so all of this happening here becomes an online classroom. We will take the TED talks happening in here and show them. Curriculum will be built for national FFA through all this, so while the excitement for all this is here, it’s actually going to be happening 365 days of the year.”

Microsoft specifically featured their own technological advancements in the food and ag sector – precision farming tools, artificial intelligence and IoT for agriculture. IoT stands for the Internet of Things, which is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables these things to connect, collect and exchange data.

“Specifically, we featured FarmBeats, Microsoft’s data-driven solution to help boost agriculture productivity,” Kravitz said. “It is an end-to-end IoT platform for agriculture that enables seamless data collection from various sensors, cameras, and drones.”

 Fritz said the Blue Room will act overall as a way for students to “connect the dots” between the technology they already experience daily and have for most of their lives, to what that same innovation can accomplish when applied to agriculture.

Part of Microsoft’s decision to support FFA in the Blue Room was to accomplish goals relating to their TechSpark initiative launched last year, which is one of many the company has organized to support agricultural-focused priorities, including providing broadband access to rural communities which need it to support advanced ag tech and systems. 

“We believe that technology opportunities and skills should be accessible to everyone,” Kravitz said. “As a company that develops technology that plays a role in transforming society, we have a responsibility to help people who may be impacted by those technological advances. The future of farming is increasingly digital. We want to show National FFA students technology innovations in agriculture and highlight the need for digital skills in ag jobs of today, and tomorrow.”