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Cornell University

I-CIPS: Initiative for Computational Innovation in Plant Sciences

Forging research collaborations, enhancing teaching and expanding impact in computational plant science.

Housed in the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS), the Initiative for Computational Innovation in Plant Sciences (I-CIPS) brings together experts from diverse fields to create a world-class program for computational plant science research, teaching and outreach. By fostering a vibrant and supportive environment, I-CIPS strives to cement Cornell University’s and SIPS’s position as a global leader in computational plant sciences, driving innovation that benefits both scientific understanding and societal well-being.

I-CIPS serves as a central hub for interdisciplinary collaboration, including:

  • Forging research collaborations within SIPS, with our colleagues at Cornell and partner institutions, and university and industry scientists.
  • Enhancing the quality and scope of our computational plant science teaching for Cornell undergraduate and graduate students.
  • Expanding our impact beyond Cornell through outreach and extension activities.

Why I-CIPS?

Cornell School of Integrative Plant Science houses an unparalleled research portfolio, comprising programs ranging from eco-evolutionary analysis to crop improvement to global change biology, which positions the school as an international powerhouse in the plant sciences. To maintain this position of preeminence and enable multi-disciplinary solutions to today’s Grand Challenges, we need to establish an AI-associated identity hub for collaborations, partnerships, and infrastructure that can leverage emerging resources and opportunities.

SIPS researchers already play instrumental roles in their role in graduate field efforts and existing related collaborations that are part of the Cornell AI Initiative, including:

  • Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture (CIDA) – A community of scholars, teachers and practitioners work together to drive agriculture innovation and tackle social, economic, policy, and environmental challenges at scale. CIDA provides seed grants, acts as a hub of collaborations, and provides education and outreach activities and programs.
  • Artificial Intelligence for Sustainability (AI4S) – Part of the Cornell University AI for Science Institute, harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle global sustainability challenges, focusing on decarbonizing energy and agri-food systems.
  • AI-LEAF Institute – Cornell is one of six universities partnering with the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to create more climate-smart practices that will curb U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, while boosting the economy in the agriculture and forestry industries.

These initiatives provide robust frameworks for collaborating with non-SIPS researchers on specific topics. I-CIPS, on the other hand, will act as an umbrella program for facilitating research collaborations within SIPS and across the breadth of its portfolio. Faculty in SIPS teach hundreds of students each year, many of whom express interest in improved computational offerings in plant sciences and greater exposure to state-of-the-art techniques through seminars and workshops. I-CIPS will catalyze a rapid implementation of such novel programs and/or help in directing students to existing coursework, enabling us to train the next generation of innovators and to attract world-class talent to Cornell. The I-CIPS framework can further foster innovations and awareness about SIPS’ extension and outreach, producing a greater impact in our NYS and global communities. 

This SIPS-specific initiative is timely because:

  • The research expanse of SIPS spans many fields beyond agriculture and AI.
  • There are many research collaborations on the computational front that can be developed within SIPS and with other Cornell initiatives, but a structure for fostering these collaborations is lacking.
  • I-CIPS will complement the above frameworks in better serving the needs of our students and postdocs, in terms of teaching-training in AI in plant-related domains, networking and attracting excellent talent in computational plant sciences.
  • I-CIPS will better serve the needs of SIPS in extension and outreach, producing a greater impact.