<div dir="ltr">Hello Cocoa Conspiracy!<div><br></div><div>This is app-related though not Apple-related. </div><div><br></div><div>My advisor (ccd) and I have yet to publish my M.S. work re: foodshed scaling. We identify fractal scaling of diversity (aka uncertainty) from blocks of a couple hundred pixels in the USDA <a href="http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/">CDL</a> to blocks the size of our great state, NM. Our theoretical framework leverages an accounting procedure we refer to as the "distributor" entropy by incorporating information from the whole-system into the entropy statistics. old-school ecology generally only uses site-specific information. our approach lowers uncertainty about which types of produce you'll get by an order of magnitude.</div><div><br></div><div>The app idea would be to identify a "region" within which a distributor might wish to attempt to invest in a <a href="http://www.ngfn.org/resources/food-hubs">food hub</a>. Then, within that region, the app "reads" the landscape to identify the most probable crops to be processed by a food hub, the optimal scale for the hub to operate, and a general neighborhood for the location of the storage/distribution/processing facility. I still need to comb through some of USDA's other open data sources to see what's available. Would be cool to identify potential local business partnerships based on census data. </div><div><br></div><div>The point is: we are academics and probably don't have a shot at this without a good app developer. Our statistical engine currently works in MATLAB but I could definitely rewrite it in scipy (or probably also R; both work in MS Azure). We would need someone who can understand enough of what we're doing to be able to make it practical and intuitive for users. Could be a really fun project; some really cool insights could emerge out of the collaboration of academic and app-ademic. I'll stop now.<br></div><div><br></div><div>If anyone is interested, I'll be dropping by Winning this Thursday morning. Or shoot me an email. </div><div><br></div><div>*clinks glass*</div><div><br></div><div>Mike Chang</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">USDA Office of Communications</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:usda@public.govdelivery.com" target="_blank">usda@public.govdelivery.com</a>></span><br>Date: Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 7:40 AM<br>Subject: USDA, Microsoft to Launch "Innovation Challenge" to Address Food Resiliency<br>To: <a href="mailto:mikethechang@gmail.com" target="_blank">mikethechang@gmail.com</a><br><br><br><u></u>
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<td height="12">Release No. 0215.15</td>
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<td align="right" height="12">Office of Communications <a href="tel:%28202%29720-4623" value="+12027204623" target="_blank">(202)720-4623</a></td>
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<td align="center" valign="middle" height="10">USDA, Microsoft to Launch "Innovation Challenge" to Address Food Resiliency</td>
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<td align="center" valign="middle" height="12"><i>$60,000 in Prizes Offered for Most Creative Applications Using USDA Open Data</i></td>
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<p>WASHINGTON, July 24, 2015 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is partnering with Microsoft to launch the "Innovation Challenge," a contest designed to explore how climate change will impact the United States' food system with the intent of achieving better food resiliency. The challenge invites entrants to develop and publish new applications and tools that can analyze multiple sources of information about the nation's food supply, including key USDA data sets that are now hosted on Microsoft Azure, Microsoft's cloud-computing platform.</p>
<p>"For more than 100 years, USDA has compiled data from economic reports and farm production surveys, and more recently from satellite imagery and remote sensors that can provide information on the health of crops around the country," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Through this partnership with Microsoft, we are now putting that data into the hands of people who can help us derive new insights to address factors that threaten our ability to feed a growing global population. This offers very exciting possibilities, and I look forward to seeing the new tools that contest participants develop."</p>
<p>For the first time, key <a href="http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTUwNzI0LjQ3NDk4NTUxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE1MDcyNC40NzQ5ODU1MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3Mzk3MzAzJmVtYWlsaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&101&&&http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/azure/cdi2.aspx#datasets" title="External link or third-party site, opens in new window." target="_blank">USDA datasets</a> are being made available in the cloud where they can be accessed and blended with other data to give novel insights or used in new types of end-user applications. Combining these USDA data with cloud-computing resources allows even very high fidelity and complex models to be processed in a timely manner and enables results to be delivered to remote users on their laptops, tablets or mobile phones.</p>
<p>The challenge offers $60,000 in prizes, including a top prize of $25,000, for applications that make use of the USDA data and provide actionable insights to farmers, agriculture businesses, scientists or consumers. In addition, Microsoft is granting cloud-computing awards to aid university researchers and students who wish to take part in the challenge. The deadline for entries is November 20, 2015, giving challenge participants three months to create their applications. Winners will be announced in December 2015.</p>
<p>The increased prevalence and availability of data from satellite imagery, remote sensors, surveys and economic reports mean that we can analyze, model and predict an extremely diverse set of properties associated with our food production. Applications might combine data from the USDA and other government sources, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or the United States Geological Survey, and can be targeted at farmers, scientists, food producers, insurance companies or consumers.</p>
<p>"I am looking forward to discover what creative ideas the community comes up with through blending together USDA data, novel ways of exploring and analyzing data with access to large scale computing and data analysis in the form of Microsoft's Azure platform," said Dr. Daron Green, Deputy Managing Director of Microsoft Research. "Microsoft and the USDA seek to catalyze the creativity of others and hope that the challenge will provide a great incentive for developers and researchers interested in data science to put together some great applications helping address the USA's food resiliency needs."</p>
<p>Microsoft will promote the challenge at the 2015 meeting of the <a href="http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTUwNzI0LjQ3NDk4NTUxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE1MDcyNC40NzQ5ODU1MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3Mzk3MzAzJmVtYWlsaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&102&&&http://www.aaea.org/" title="External link or third-party site, opens in new window." target="_blank">Agricultural & Applied Economics Association</a>. Full details can be found at <a href="http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTUwNzI0LjQ3NDk4NTUxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE1MDcyNC40NzQ5ODU1MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3Mzk3MzAzJmVtYWlsaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&103&&&http://usdaapps.challengepost.com/" title="External link or third-party site, opens in new window." target="_blank">http://usdaapps.challengepost.com</a>.</p>
<p>The Innovation Challenge was created in support of the <a href="http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTUwNzI0LjQ3NDk4NTUxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE1MDcyNC40NzQ5ODU1MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3Mzk3MzAzJmVtYWlsaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZ1c2VyaWQ9bWlrZXRoZWNoYW5nQGdtYWlsLmNvbSZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&104&&&https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/07/29/unleashing-climate-data-empower-america-s-agricultural-sector" title="Opens in new window." target="_blank">President's Climate Data Initiative</a>, which aims to harness climate data in ways that will increase the resilience of America's food system. This is a direct response to the President's call for all hands on deck to generate further innovation to help prepare America's communities and business for the impacts of climate change.</p>
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