At Modesto Junior College, engineering students don’t fear AI – instead, they are taught that, without their human creativity, it’s not a very powerful tool.
Paloma Ramirez, a second year mechanical engineering student and member of MJC’s Math Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program, plans to see just how far her creativity can take her.
At 25-years-old, she spent the last few months balancing a full-time job, a full class schedule at MJC and a 15-week engineering course. The latter, in particular, helped her plug into a network of people planning to change the future of industrial agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley.
“It sounds hard and impossible, but if you really set your mind to completing something, accomplishing something,” she said, “it’s not really that hard. The potential and your determination is what really gets you through it.”
The new 15-week course called Ignite EmTech Futures is a partnership between the local junior college, nonprofits and agricultural technology innovators. Fifteen students completed the first cohort this round.
Taught by Modesto-based company IO SCADA, the course uses an open source technology called Inductive Automation Ignition to build smart-farm models.
IO designs and sells supervisory control and data acquisitions (SCADA) – technology that helps industries track data and control equipment in real-time. Inductive, similarly provides the tools for farm owners and manufacturing companies.
A smart farm can be remotely monitored and controlled, which can allow farmers to better utilize water and energy.
IO SCADA and Inductive deal with digital communication across agricultural and manufacturing industries. Both groups invest in education to ensure the technology is accessible for people hoping to enter the field.
Students learned about Industry 4.0, also known as the fourth industrial revolution, and used its concepts to code and wire a functional small-scale smart farm.
Windmills and waterpumps were hooked up to a “digital twin” that mimicked all the components and sensors on the physical boards within the models students learned how to code through Inductive’s software.
During their presentations, each group spoke about the ways they can see these kinds of systems being used on actual farms in the region.
“The more people use the software, the more that it’s going to become a tool for creative and curious people,” said Julio Ruiz Velasco, founder and president of IO SCADA. “You give them the tools and you let them create,”
In the last year, MESA and Beam Circular, a Modesto-based nonprofit dedicated to creating sustainable agriculture jobs in the Central Valley, have worked alongside industry partners to make this goal a reality.
Last week, Modestans were invited to see the results of some of their work at the inaugural Ignite EmTech Futures Demo Day. Modesto Vice Mayor and District 5 Councilman Jeremiah Williams presented the students who completed the course with a special recognition from the city.
Several groups of industrial agriculture technology investors are betting on a group of hardworking scholars to bring about the future of the agricultural workforce in the San Joaquin Valley.
“These machines, without you, they’re nothing. Just piles of electronics. You guys give life to these machines, and you guys give intelligence to these machines…. It’s your intelligence that you transfer to these machines with your code,” Ruiz Velasco said.
As the students learned the technology, Ruiz Velasco said he was impressed by the dedication and creativity of the students. That included Ramirez, who was offered an internship at the company after completing the program.
“I mean, the potential (this technology) has is just absurd,” Ramirez said. “It really is set to the imagination… If you really set your mind to creating something new, you can get anything from that.”
Ramirez hopes to transfer to UC Davis or UC Merced and potentially start her own business with the skill she’s gained in engineering, coding, and ag tech.
Vivienne Aguilar is a reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at vivienne@themodestofocus.org.