Elia Scudiero

Watering smarter, not more

Tracie Ventimiglia — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 23:19:39 +0000

Watering smarter, not more Tracie Ventimiglia Fri, 04/03/2026 - 16:19 More News Jules Bernstein April 02, 2026

Advanced technology can help farmers get to the root of a growing problem ¾ overwatering in an era of increasing drought and water scarcity. A new UC Riverside system can map soil moisture tree by tree, so growers water only where and when it’s needed.

This system, detailed in the journal Computer and Electronics in Agriculture, was led by the research group of Elia Scudiero, associate professor of precision agriculture and the Director of UCR’s Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment (CAFE).

UCR wins $10 million to develop AI for sustainable agriculture

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 01:43:10 +0000

UCR wins $10 million to develop AI for sustainable agriculture Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 08/09/2020 - 18:43 More News Jules Bernstein | UCR News June 22, 2020

The University of California, Riverside, has won a $10 million grant to develop artificial intelligence that will increase the environmental and economic stability of agriculture in the Western U.S.

Digital Agriculture Team Principal Investigator Elia Scudiero. (Elia Scudiero/UCR)

This Sustainable Agricultural Systems grant is one of nine given by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, annually to shape the future of U.S. agriculture toward environmental, economic, and socially sustainable food production. It is the third-largest grant in UCR history.

This project will focus on the Colorado River Basin and Salinas River Valley areas, which employ more than 500,000 people and generate roughly $12 billion annually in revenue.

Despite its productivity, the region has experienced major, prolonged droughts over the past 20 years, and is increasingly under attack by weed, pathogen, and insect invasions worsened by climate change. In addition to insufficient water, soil and water degradation from excessive salt and chemicals is also a threat. This project will develop solutions to these problems in the form of new data science tools, a new multistate cooperative extension program for growers, and a fellowship to educate future agriculture leaders.

Elia Scudiero, a professional researcher in UCR’s Department of Environmental Sciences, is the project’s principal investigator. Scudiero is an expert in soil, plant, and water relationships, and received NIFA’s New Investigator Award in 2019.

Leaders of the UC Riverside Digital Agriculture Team. (Elia Scudiero/UCR)

In addition to Scudiero, the following UC Riverside scientists are involved: Hoori Ajami, Ahmed Eldawy, Milt McGiffen, Connie Nugent, Vagelis Papalexakis, Alexander Putman, Monique Rivera, and Kurt Schwabe. Partner institutions include UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, USDA Agricultural Research Service, University of Arizona, Duke University, Colorado State University, and University of Georgia.

One of the major challenges of this project will be teaching AI algorithms to synthesize massive amounts of data from a wide variety of sources. Vagelis Papalexakis, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, explained there is currently no one prevailing method for combining such radically different types of data.

The crux of the solution, he said, will involve inventing new statistical and algebraic models that find repeated and generalizable patterns between seemingly different types of data.

“This will be an endeavor that will help make field management more efficient, reduce costs for growers, and make food more accessible,” Papalexakis said. “This by itself is an amazing prospect. But the lessons learned from this project also have the potential to advance core AI techniques for combining large, disparate data sets, which extend to a wide variety of real-life applications.”

A key piece of advancing the agriculture industry will be supplying it with the next generation of growers, managers, and scientists. According to the USDA, the average age of farmers in California went from 56.8 in 2002 to 60.1 in 2012. There is a need to recruit more young people into the workforce, and this project represents an opportunity to do so.

Funds from this grant will establish a Digital Agriculture Fellowship program that will recruit more than 50 students over the next five years.

Data, environmental, or agricultural science students will mostly come from UCR, while some will come from partnering institutions. Those coming from other universities will spend summers at UCR participating in career development activities.

Students will be paired with faculty mentors to develop unique research projects they’ll undertake throughout their 1.5 years as fellows. Internships with key commercial partners are also a focal feature of the program.

“This program will not only provide intensive professional training for the students, it will also spread awareness of big challenges facing American food growers when students present at academic and professional conferences,” said Connie Nugent, Divisional Dean for Student Academic Affairs.

The UCR College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences has a track record of success in managing undergraduate research and mentorship programs. The Digital Agriculture Fellowship is an adjunct to UCR’s Research in Science and Engineering, or RISE program, offering long-term guidance for undergraduate success, preparation for graduate school, and careers as leaders in the agricultural sector.

Scudiero is excited for the project to begin in September this year.

“This work is very relevant not only for California, but for the entire U.S. Southwest because of water scarcity and other environmental challenges facing us all,” Scudiero said. “We hope to bring transformative changes to the entire farming system in this area of the country and engage students, as well as the research and farming communities in the process.”

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UCR research agronomist receives USDA New Investigator Award

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 01:32:10 +0000

UCR research agronomist receives USDA New Investigator Award Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 08/09/2020 - 18:32 More Awards Jules Bernstein | Inside UCR May 14, 2019

he National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has awarded nearly $500,000 to Elia Scudiero, a professional researcher in the environmental sciences department, for a project helping California’s farmers use water more efficiently while protecting crops.

UCR research agronomist Elia Scudiero

The Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement New Investigator grant Scudiero received is a highly competitive award given to researchers at the beginning of their careers.

Scudiero came to UC Riverside as a postdoctoral researcher from Padua, Italy, in 2014 and became an assistant research agronomist in 2018. He studies properties of soil, such as salinity and water content, to increase the economic and environmental sustainability of farms. Scudiero carries out his research at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory, one of USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s national laboratories, which is located at UCR.

It is important to study soil salinity, Scudiero said, because it is a threat to crop production around the world. Salts accumulate in soil both from natural and manmade sources, such as fertilizers and salts in irrigation waters. If there is too much salt built up near the soil surface, it can prevent vital processes in plant growth and even cause crops to fail entirely.

Out of an abundance of caution and without accurate salinity measurements, farmers have traditionally over-irrigated their fields to send salts into lower soil depths where they can’t harm crops. However, this practice is being scrutinized as both the quantity and quality of water becomes scarcer.

For this project, Scudiero is leading a team of scientists, including UCR Assistant Professor of Computer Science Ahmed Eldawy, in an effort to accurately measure soil salinity for most of California’s farmland, so growers can use only the amount necessary to protect their crops.

“One of the objectives of this project will also be to map changes of salinity in California over time, from the 1970s until now, so we can discuss the way droughts, climate change, and other factors are affecting the sustainability of the state’s agriculture,” Scudiero explained.

Beginning July 1, the team plans to combine ground measurements with remote sensing imagery to generate precise maps of the state’s soil salinity and an irrigation recommendation tool for California’s farmers.

Pistachio trees in Fresno County that died of excessive salt stress and water logging. (Elia Scudiero/UCR)

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