Syngenta Brings Artificial Intelligence to Agriculture With Inaugural AI Challenge
By leveraging the tools of AI technology, participants can create models to analyze data that can be used to grow more food using fewer resources.
While it might be a far cry from robots in Hollywood, researchers at Syngenta believe that artificial intelligence (AI) could help better feed the world. Syngenta has partnered with the AI for Good Foundation to launch the Syngenta AI Challenge, a new data science competition focused on bringing AI tools to agriculture.
"In the face of a rising global population, we need to grow plants that can adapt and thrive in changing conditions—especially as vital resources like water and land are finite,” says Joseph Byrum, Ph.D., MBA, PMP and senior R&D strategic marketing executive with Syngenta. “The Syngenta AI Challenge is about creating models that can help solve this puzzle and ensure world food security.”
To help them create their models, participants of the AI Challenge received datasets, including seed genetic information, along with soil, weather and climate data from previous years.
The competition aligns with Syngenta’s commitment outlined in The Good Growth Plan, which aims to improve the sustainability of agriculture by making crops more efficient without using more resources.
Prizes are $7,500 for first place, $5,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place. The entry due date was June 1, 2017, and winners will be invited to present at the KDD 2017 conference in Nova Scotia on August 14, 2017.
As technology becomes more “intelligent,” progressing to learn faster and analyze more complex patterns in data, it can play a significant role in helping scientists find ways to improve the world’s food security. The Syngenta AI Challenge asks experts in data science to use their programming skills to design models that can analyze large amounts of seed data more effectively."If artificial intelligence is going to change the world, it had better help us solve some of our most pressing problems. Few things are more pressing than ensuring we can feed a growing world population sustainably."
"In the face of a rising global population, we need to grow plants that can adapt and thrive in changing conditions—especially as vital resources like water and land are finite,” says Joseph Byrum, Ph.D., MBA, PMP and senior R&D strategic marketing executive with Syngenta. “The Syngenta AI Challenge is about creating models that can help solve this puzzle and ensure world food security.”
To help them create their models, participants of the AI Challenge received datasets, including seed genetic information, along with soil, weather and climate data from previous years.
The competition aligns with Syngenta’s commitment outlined in The Good Growth Plan, which aims to improve the sustainability of agriculture by making crops more efficient without using more resources.
Annual #AIforAg challenge from @SyngentaUS brings artificial intelligence to #ag.
"If artificial intelligence is going to change the world, it had better help us solve some of our most pressing problems," says James Hodson, co-founder and CEO of the AI for Good Foundation. "Few things are more pressing than ensuring we can feed a growing world population sustainably."
click to tweet 
Prizes are $7,500 for first place, $5,000 for second place and $1,000 for third place. The entry due date was June 1, 2017, and winners will be invited to present at the KDD 2017 conference in Nova Scotia on August 14, 2017.
share this article
