A group of engineers at Iowa State are developing a new program to help improve the process of collecting agriculture and transportation information.

Hongwei Zhang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the project’s principal investigator. Zhang and his team are currently working on a project called ‘CyNet’ that is funded through a $999,919 grant from the National Science Foundation.

‘CyNet’ hopes to solve some of the data collecting and researching challenges in the agriculture field. The new system network will collect a mass amount of data and store it in its own cloud on campus. The system hopes to provide information for researchers in a way that saves more time and money than before. 

The team includes Arun Somani, associate dean of the college of engineering; Ahmed Kamal, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Patrick Schnable, distinguished professor of agronomy and director of the plant sciences Institute; and Anuj Sharma, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering.

Curtiss Farm will be acting as the testing site for the new technology and the project is estimated to last a couple of years. 

The official field test for the project starts on Oct. 1 and aims to be a step in the right direction for the future of agriculture and transportation.

Part of the project involves using self driving cars that the department of civil engineering will construct the design. However, it is unknown at this time how many cars will be involved.

Iowa State is currently the only university working on this project, but Zhang said there is interest to work with other schools.

“We are definitely open to the idea of sharing this project with other schools not just in the Midwest, it’s very expendable technology,” Zhang said.

Zhang was previously an associate professor at Wayne State University in Detroit for 11 years and said he is excited to start his first project at Iowa State.

“Each project has their own impact, they are driven by passion,” Zhang said. “They are not just for the faculty, but also for the students involved.”