Research in IST cuts across traditional boundaries to drive interdisciplinary discovery and innovation. Our research is sponsored by a variety of national and international agencies, and we collaborate with diverse groups of scholars within and beyond Penn State. Explore our funded projects to see how IST's transformative research is addressing the world's most complex problems at the intersection of information, technology, and society.
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Researcher:
Haynes, Steven
Sponsoring Agency: USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
The United States produces more than 938 million pounds of mushrooms annually valued at $1.2 billion, with Pennsylvania producing 66% of the total US mushroom crop (USDA NASS, 2020). Mushroom production is a very labor-intensive process. The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and Sexsmith (2019) studies report a critical shortage of farm labor in Pennsylvania, and the US mushroom farms are short by 20% of the number of workers needed on their farms to complete required tasks, thereby limiting the crop yield and economic outcomes. This project will address the labor shortage in three ways: (1) develop automated fresh mushroom harvesting and packaging technologies through smart agriculture; (2) modify crop management techniques to optimize harvesting rates of manual laborers and mechanized systems; and (3) provide advanced technologies to industry stakeholders for labor efficient production and the economic well-being of rural communities.
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Researcher:
Rajtmajer, Sarah
Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation
Collaborative Research: HNDS-I: Digitally Accountable Public RepresentationLearn more...
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Researcher:
Kou, Yubo; Gui, Xinning
Sponsoring Agency: National Science Foundation
SaTC: CORE: Small: Investigating and Mitigating Harmful Design in User-Generated Virtual World through Design ModerationLearn more...
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