Martin, Kevin B1
1Department of Engineering Technology, Northern Illinois University
Demand for vertical farming is experiencing tremendous growth due to recent advances in artificial intelligence, rapidly falling costs in LEDs and a looming global water crisis. Specifically, the greens market in Chicagoland is estimated to be worth $400 million. With respect to agricultural products, it is desirable to know how the production practices influence product quality(flavor and nutritional value), and how such practices can be optimized to enhance consumer acceptability. This project combines expertise and capabilities in optimization of environmental agriculture control systems (NIU) and flavor analyses (UIUC) along with strong industry support. This project aims to address current limitations and investigate the use of light quality through the application of cutting-edge tools to enhance the flavor of basil. It is expected that the proposed exploratory work will provide the necessary background data to help investigators develop competitive externally funded research proposals in collaboration with Illinois industrial and civic partners