A Culture of Innovation: How the reinvention of Roots IT is empowering Oregon’s blueberry farmers
For over 157 years, Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences has been a driving force in agricultural innovation, research, and education. As the university’s founding college, it has made a profound impact on Oregon’s diverse communities and landscape, carrying out OSU’s land grant mission. With a focus on enhancing agricultural production while safeguarding natural resources, the college collaborates closely with local communities to advance the agricultural industry and solve problems related to climate change and clean energy. The college’s researchers are pushing the boundaries with groundbreaking studies on coastal food systems, food innovation for health and access, agricultural resilience, and the conservation of Oregon’s natural landscapes. From pioneering water stress indicators for hazelnut trees to transforming coffee grounds into eco-friendly food packaging, the College of Agricultural Sciences is at the forefront of meaningful discoveries that benefit Oregon and beyond.
The College of Agricultural Sciences plays a pivotal role in achieving the vision of Prosperity Widely Shared. By revitalizing agricultural industries, creating employment opportunities, and boosting food production to feed more people across the nation, the college is an indispensable part of OSU’s mission. As one of the university’s leading research colleges, it is instrumental in supporting OSU’s ambitious goal to increase research expenditures from $422 million to $600 million by 2030. To maintain its position as a major contributor to OSU’s research efforts, the college is embracing powerful, cutting-edge technology to drive innovation and progress.
The Reinvention of Roots IT
Enter Roots IT, the college’s dedicated team of IT professionals, or, as Roots IT Director Tim Rager says, “the technology engine that empowers the College of Agricultural Sciences.” Roots IT supports the college’s 26 departments and programs, 14 off-campus research sites, the Oregon Seed Laboratory, and the Center for Qualitative Life Sciences. Traditionally, the team has focused on providing helpdesk and computing support, as well as managing campus labs and other college computing facilities. Prosperity Widely Shared is changing that, allowing Rager and the Roots IT team to reinvent themselves and form a more proactive relationship with the college’s researchers.
“Roots IT is transforming into a Digital Transformation Hub,” Rager said. “In this new role, Roots IT goes beyond basic support to become a strategic partner, actively driving innovation in agricultural research, education, and extension.”
This shift from desktop support to strategic partner has encouraged the team to ask questions and think about things in ways they hadn’t considered before. How could they use technology to enable the College of Agricultural Sciences to meet its research goals and go after competitive grants? How could they better support researchers and instructors? Over the last year, Roots IT has been addressing these questions and reexamining how they approach and implement technology, expanding it beyond the computer lab and directly into the field.
Over the last few years, OSU IT has been installing dark fiber in the university’s research fields and experiment stations, bringing broadband and greater connectivity directly into areas where research is conducted and data is collected. With this expansion in infrastructure capability, Roots IT can deliver technology solutions for the college’s researchers where they are. “Field-ready technology opens up new avenues of research that were previously impractical or impossible,” Rager said. “Researchers can study insect behavior in natural environments using automated monitoring systems or optimize irrigation in real-time based on sensor data.”
Bringing technology into the field paves the way for solutions that enhance research capabilities and efficiencies, increasing the college’s research competitiveness. Roots IT is currently working with one college researcher on using AI for vision detection and analysis. The researcher is studying a laser that’s designed to deter birds from eating seeds in the ground and currently collects and analyzes data by manually examining hundreds of pictures of birds. Roots IT is developing ways to implement AI to do the time-intensive image analysis and bird counting for her.
One of Rager’s reinvention goals is to leverage AI and make it a core technical competency within the college, building expertise and infrastructure to support AI-driven research across various disciplines within agricultural sciences. “Technologies like AI-powered image analysis and automated data collection streamline research processes, making them more efficient and precise. Researchers can monitor experiments remotely, automate data collection tasks, and gain faster feedback on their studies,” he said. “Roots IT is helping to develop solutions for critical challenges facing Oregon and the world, such as climate change, food security, and sustainable agriculture.”
Building Oregon’s Blueberry (chat)Bot
Roots IT has already begun implementing AI technology that enables researchers to share their expertise and improve engagement with the greater Oregon community. The team recently partnered with Dr. Wei Yang, a horticulture professor and OSU’s Blueberry Extension Specialist at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center. Together, they are developing a chatbot that gives Oregon’s blueberry farmers access to Yang’s extensive knowledge of blueberry production systems.
“The chatbot will provide growers with assistance in all production-related topics, from cultivar selections, field entablement, field management, and pest management to harvesting and postharvest handling,” Yang said. “Growers can rely on it 24/7, knowing that the information they get is highly accurate because the chatbot was developed and trained based on research information compiled by me, their blueberry specialist.”
"As an R1 research university with a land grant mission, OSU needs to be at the forefront of research and innovation, particularly in areas that benefit Oregon and its communities... We are energized by the opportunity to be at the forefront of this change, driving innovation that will have a real-world impact on Oregon’s agricultural communities and beyond.”
— Tim Rager, Roots IT Director
Blueberries are the 10th largest agricultural commodity in Oregon. In 2022, the state produced 159,500,000 pounds of blueberries — 26% of the nation’s overall production. Oregon has over 350 blueberry farms, and 75% of the state’s blueberries are grown within a 50-mile radius of the North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, where Yang is located. As a specialist in his field, Yang’s knowledge and insight into local blueberry health and production is a valuable asset to Oregon’s agricultural industry. His chatbot will provide farmers with immediate access to information, answering pressing questions that can impact production: “Which cultivar shall I choose to start a new blueberry field?” “How do I reduce soil pH?” “What’s the best way to control mummy berries?” “How to control Canadian thistle in my blueberry field?” “What rate of malathion shall I use to control spotted wing drosophila?” The chatbot will then collect and analyze the questions, providing Yang with data and insight into how he can best support Oregon’s blueberry farmers.
As the blueberry extension specialist, Yang is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with a dedicated IT team that can help realize and expand his reach to growers. “Roots IT is an invaluable resource for me to realize an AI concept and make it happen,” he said. “The blueberry chatbot is just a start for researchers and extension specialists like me to work together with Roots IT to build an AI platform that Extension Services can use for all other specific areas or crops.”
The blueberry chatbot is one of Roots IT’s first projects since its reinvention — but certainly not the last. Rager plans to continue partnering with the college’s researchers, exploring innovative technology solutions that empower their work in agricultural sciences to benefit OSU, Oregon, and beyond. “As an R1 research university with a land grant mission, OSU needs to be at the forefront of research and innovation, particularly in areas that benefit Oregon and its communities. Roots IT’s transformation positions the College of Agricultural Sciences and OSU as a leader in technology-driven agricultural research and innovation, fulfilling the land grant mission in the digital age,” he said. “We are energized by the opportunity to be at the forefront of this change, driving innovation that will have a real-world impact on Oregon’s agricultural communities and beyond.”
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