Some of the challenges we face in agriculture are part of what is known as the grand global challenge: How do we continue to feed more people on less land with fewer negative impacts of commercialized agriculture? How do we minimize our carbon footprint and at the same time maintain yields on a continually decreasing scale of operation?
That scale of operation at the individual farm level increases, but globally, the land mass is decreasing. That challenge results in the greater integration of technologies. Therefore, we have programs on technology integration in agriculture.
For our students now, because we are the school of agriculture and technology, the integration of the two is absolutely fundamental to understanding the future of ag.
Here is a case in point. The newest John Deere combine has more onboard computers than a shuttlecraft. With 32 onboard computers, a modern combine basically drives itself, but it doesn't service itself. It needs to have the technical supports in order for the farmer or the producer to actually have the services needed to continue to produce at the scale that literally feeds the world.