An ISU research team received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to further its research on soil sensors.

The team, led by Ratnesh Kumar, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been working on sensors that are placed in the soil to monitor soil properties including moisture, temperature and nutrient levels.

The data collected from these sensors can help adjust appropriate nitrogen levels needed on a field.

“The plant can only use what it needs,” Kumar said about nitrogen used on fields. Information gathered from the sensors can help reduce the amount of unused nitrogen on fields that may runoff and pollute water sources.

The research team was one of 17 programs selected to receive a grant from the Cyber-Innovation Sustainability Science and Engineering program within the NSF, which awarded $12.5 million in grants altogether.

Phillip Regalia, an NSF program officer for CyberSEES, explained that CyberSEES works toward answers in “challenges of sustainability, where a sustainable world is one where human needs are met equitably without harm to the environment or sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. To encourage these developments, the CyberSEES program aims to foster the interplay between cyber innovation and sustainability science and engineering.”

Kumar explained that the sensors are buried underground, so they have no effect on farming practices. The sensors can send their data to a computer without having to be constantly removed from the ground.

The team is hoping to continue to develop the sensor so it is more sensitive as well as possibly capable of powering itself. The grant money will also help add Ph.D. students into the research process.

The same team previously received a smaller grant from the NSF for the project in 2008.

Regalia explained that projects are chosen by a review panel of experts in fields that match the proposals. The panel also looks at impacts from the proposed research and intellectual merits.