In recent years, AI leaders have urged machine learning experts to consider understanding the world’s oceans and tackling climate change grand challenges on par with building autonomous vehicles, beating a computer at a game of chess, or robotic grasping.
Combining computer vision, logistics, robotics, and the science of botany, indoor farming has the potential to change human lives. But innovation in this area requires considering dozens of variants and doing more with less.
Bowery Farming, founded in 2015, the company has introduced a number of major changes in recent weeks. These are part of its largest expansion since raising more than $170 million from investors including GV (formerly Google Ventures) and individuals like Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
One of those changes was giving the CTO role to former Google VP Injong Rhee, who had worked on IoT platforms for Google like the edge TPU AI chip and software and services for Samsung. Last month, Bowery also opened what it calls a “center of excellence” in New Jersey. Called Farm X, the center will focus on raising not just leafy greens like the kind Bowery sells today, but also cucumbers, root vegetables, strawberries, and tomatoes.
This initiative will focus on research and development, functioning as a sandbox for considering the possible blends of seeds and conditions required to grow produce indoors. A Bowery spokesperson declined to share how much square footage is devoted to the project, but a statement from the company describes Farm X as “one of the largest and most sophisticated vertical farming R&D facilities in the world.”
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