Funding Agency:  USDA-CSREES International Science and Education Program

Proposed Duration:  September 2010 – August 2014

Team Members:

University of Georgia
Dr. George Vellidis, Biological & Agricultural Engineering – Project and TAPAC Director
Dr. Craig Kvien, Crop & Soil Sciences
Dr. Don Shurley, Agricultural & Applied Economics

Auburn University
Dr. John Fulton, Biosystems Engineering
Dr. Paul Mask, Alabama Cooperative Extension Service
Dr. Brenda Ortiz, Agronomy & Soils

PanepistimioThessalias (Greece)
Professor Theofanis Gemtos, Laboratory of Farm Mechanisation

Università degli Studi di Padova (Italy)
Professor Francesco Morari, Departimento di Agronomia Ambientale e Produzioni Vegetali

Technische Universität München (Germany)
Dr. Markus Gandorfer, Institute of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management

Summary:
The TransAtlantic Precision Agriculture Consortium (TAPAC) consists of agricultural scientists and engineers from three American and three European universities who have been working together for the past 5 years.  TAPAC members participating in this proposal are listed above.  TAPAC’s long-term goal is to establish a common M.S. degree between partner universities.  Students who enroll in this future program will be awarded dual M.S. degrees from an American and an European partner university and will spend about half of their graduate program at an overseas partner university - a compelling measure of global competence.  TAPAC’s short-term goal is to use this ISE project as a pilot study to validate concepts already developed for the common degree and to overcome institutional and funding constraints which stand in the way.  To meet this goal, we will implement a framework within which American and European students conduct their M.S. thesis research on precision agriculture at an overseas partner university while receiving a degree from their home institution.  A minimum of 6 M.S. students will participate in the program.  We will also use this project to further internationalize research and extension programs at TAPAC universities by promoting the adoption of precision agriculture by American and European producers through a series of 6 precision agriculture workshops.  The workshops will be held in Alabama (2), Georgia, Greece, Italy, and Germany and will target extension specialists and county agents in the US and government agronomists in Europe.  Thus, we will be educating the educators and ensuring that the information becomes disseminated to a broader audience.  In summary, the project will implement a framework for developing global competence in graduate students at TAPAC universities as well as having a long and lasting effect on the global competence of TAPAC faculty and staff.