CAS Undergraduate Research Fellowship

Food spoilage can cause food waste and economic losses. Ground beef is a very popular protein source in the United States. The shelf-life of ground beef is generally shorter than other beef products, which is attributable to its non-intact nature and consequently a relatively higher bacterial load in it than other beef products. Pseudomonas is the leading bacterial agent causing meat spoilage. Meat production environment, such as meat cutting and grinding room, is an important source of bacteria including Pseudomonas contaminating ground beef. In a separate project, we recovered various Pseudomonas isolates from ground beef products collected in seven grocery stores in Fort Collins. The present project intends to explore the factors contributing to the survival of Pseudomonas in meat processing environments. The findings generated from this study will help us to develop more effective measures to control Pseudomonas in meat production environment, which will potentially lead to extended shelf-life of ground beef.

It’s often said, “Colorado runs on water.” Unfortunately, our state, along with neighboring regions, is confronted with critical water resource challenges. With approximately 75% of Colorado’s direct water usage allocated to irrigation, the need to enhance irrigation management and water productivity is crucial.

Fortunately, new developments in sensor technology, data science and AI can help us address water issues. In late 2024, our team developed an innovative prototype sensor: a wireless soil moisture probe that combines research-grade precision with cost-efficiency, priced between $10-$15. This compact, hand-sized sensor avoids the traditional, cumbersome wired systems that are unpopular among growers due to the necessity of signal cables connected to dataloggers. Instead, it allows for immediate, hassle-free deployment—users can insert the sensor directly into the soil and access real-time data through a simple QR code scan, linking directly to cloud-based storage. Once a mini network of these sensors is installed, they could provide critical data to power AI-assisted irrigation decisions, enhancing water use efficiency significantly. This leads not only to water conservation but also to improvements in crop productivity and plant quality. Our goal is to make this sensor design open-source, enabling it to be continuously enhanced and mass-produced at a minimal cost. This strategy would allow our sensors to be shared globally in many regions of the world that struggle to optimize irrigation but also have limited economic resources for ag technology.

Our project is ready for a larger-scale trial. Each fall, Colorado State University’s Horticulture Center utilizes an entire greenhouse range to cultivate thousands of poinsettias under drip irrigation as part of a Greenhouse Practicum course in Horticulture. This greenhouse study provides an ideal test bed for our new soil sensors, aligning academic research with practical application and student engagement.

Moreover, this project offers an exceptional opportunity for an undergraduate research fellowship. The selected student will gain hands-on experience in IoT sensor technology within a real-world use case. They will conduct comparative analyses of water usage and plant health between areas using traditional timer-based irrigation systems and zones utilizing our sensor-driven irrigation scheduling. This direct involvement in assessing our technology not only enhances their learning but also contributes significantly to our understanding of how this sensor technology can be applied to other use cases.

This project has strong linkages to several Nutrien Showcase priorities, including: Precision Agriculture & Digital Solutions, and Sustainable Agriculture & Environmental Solutions.

Grain crops like wheat and corn derive about half of their nitrogen from soil organic matter each year, even when fully fertilized. We lack soil tests that can predict the capacity of different soils to supply nitrogen via nitrogen mineralization. The student in this position will conduct laboratory and greenhouse assays to assess their potential to predict soil nitrogen availability across different soils.

This project will advance soil science by uncovering how soil fauna influence soil organic matter (SOM) stabilization in integrated crop-livestock (ICL) systems. Using innovative methods, including stable-isotope tracing and microbiome analysis, it will reveal biological mechanisms that enhance carbon sequestration and soil health. Findings will inform sustainable agricultural practices and climate resilience strategies while providing hands-on research experience to an undergraduate assistant. Results will be shared through scientific publications, conferences, and outreach events, contributing to national efforts to promote regenerative agriculture.

Erratic weather patterns and extreme conditions driven by increasing global temperatures cause prolonged droughts, heat waves, or excessive precipitations. These conditions pose significant challenges to crop production around the world affecting not only plant yield, but also nutritional content and ability to withstand pest and pathogen pressure. One strategy to mitigate this burden is the development of enhanced crop varieties that can better adapt to future environmental changes. Our research focuses on understanding plant genetic diversity and stress adaptation pathways that can be used to naturally enhance plant protection. We aim to identify and characterize genes involved in defense responses against pathogens as well as high temperatures using genetics, bioinformatics and molecular biology approaches. Current projects include the identification of DNA regulatory elements and transcription factors that drive gene activation during stressful conditions and the development of assays to measure gene activity. Our overarching goal is to provide crop breeders with information and tools that can be applied to select more robust climate-ready crop varieties.

Using resources more efficiently in livestock production systems is a focal point of our laboratory. Copper sulfate is widely used in footbaths to help prevent lameness in dairy cows. Typically, used footbath contents are discharged into the premise lagoon. High levels of copper have been reported to inhibit lagoon microorganism function. Furthermore, copper can accumulate in soil and plants in areas where the lagoon effluent is applied. We have developed a laboratory scale system to remove copper from the used footbath solution and convert the extracted copper back to copper sulfate to be reused in subsequent footbaths. We are currently evaluating the efficiency of our current system and will further investigate techniques for recycling other metals in footbath waste.