GROWER CHALLENGES
Thursday, October 1, 3:30-4:30 p.m. PT.
Online via Zoom
What Growers Need: Real Problems, Practical Solutions, and AgTech Careers
Join the Farm Robotics Challenge for a live conversation with growers and agricultural professionals working across high-value vegetables, berries, forage and dairy operations, and field-to-packing workflows.
Students will hear firsthand about the everyday challenges that make agricultural work harder, slower, less reliable, or riskier than it needs to be. Panelists will share how their teams manage these challenges today, where current approaches fall short, and what it takes for a new technology to be practical, trusted, and adopted on a working farm.
This session is designed to help Farm Robotics Challenge students identify meaningful problems before jumping to a solution. Participants will gain insight into how growers weigh tradeoffs involving labor, cost, safety, crop quality, timing, reliability, and maintenance, while also learning about career pathways at the intersection of agriculture, engineering, AI, and automation.
Students will learn how to:
Identify a specific on-farm problem worth investigating
Ask better questions of growers, workers, and other end users
Understand the real-world constraints that shape technology adoption
Design with usability, safety, economics, and operational fit in mind
Explore career opportunities in agricultural technology and innovation
Bring your questions and join the conversation with the people closest to the challenges students may one day help solve.
Thursday, October 1 | 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. PT | Online via Zoom