CFAES Give Today
CFAES Alumni Magazine

News from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

The future of Waterman

The future of Waterman

As the cornerstone college of our comprehensive land-grant university, we sustain life.

WE BELIEVE INSPIRATION IGNITES POTENTIAL. We inspire students to become industry leaders; faculty to tackle global problems through research; and producers to apply best practices to make our food supply more abundant, secure, and sustainable. A vital tool in this mission is our college’s 261-acre Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory. Waterman is growing and evolving so it can continue to be a place where students, faculty, and the producers we serve are inspired to reach potential.

| 1 |  The Multispecies Animal Learning Center (MALC) will be a $52 million center designed to bring people and animals together for hands-on learning, public events, and Extension programming. The MALC will replace outdated buildings, offering more chances for students and the public to learn about techniques used in modern-day livestock production and best practices for housing and caring for animals. The center will have state-of-the-art classrooms; a large indoor arena in which animals can be viewed without having to be transported to another facility; animal barns; a public viewing area into those barns; and interactive, educational displays.

| 2 |  The Controlled Environment Agriculture Research Complex (CEARC), which had its ribbon cutting on Sept. 30, is a production research greenhouse and a work center to research sustainable food production technologies, including soilless and hydroponic production. One of the first CEARC projects is funded by a $3.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a smart greenhouse system using smart technology and artificial intelligence designed to sense the needs of plants to automatically adjust the growing conditions in the greenhouse and increase energy, water, and food system efficiencies.

| 3 |  A remodeled dairy will include new robotic feeding and milking technology. As part of modernizing the dairy, a robotic milking system will be added to the dairy barn, allowing cows to choose freely when they’re milked. The system will collect a range of data, a key part of cutting-edge dairy operations. The system can both milk and feed cows while tracking closely each cow’s level of health and production.

| 4 |  CFAES will have a strong connection to Carmenton, the new Innovation District on West Campus, designed to house public and private partners as well as Ohio State scientists and students from across a range of disciplines, together, in focused research teams called “neighborhoods,” to exchange knowledge, understand problems that seem insurmountable, develop new technologies, and accelerate bringing the solutions to market that the world needs now. CFAES researchers will serve as members of multiple of those neighborhood teams. 

December 9, 2022 - 4:22pm -- moser.26@osu.edu
Authors: 
Body: 

As the cornerstone college of our comprehensive land-grant university, we sustain life.

WE BELIEVE INSPIRATION IGNITES POTENTIAL. We inspire students to become industry leaders; faculty to tackle global problems through research; and producers to apply best practices to make our food supply more abundant, secure, and sustainable. A vital tool in this mission is our college’s 261-acre Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory. Waterman is growing and evolving so it can continue to be a place where students, faculty, and the producers we serve are inspired to reach potential.

| 1 |  The Multispecies Animal Learning Center (MALC) will be a $52 million center designed to bring people and animals together for hands-on learning, public events, and Extension programming. The MALC will replace outdated buildings, offering more chances for students and the public to learn about techniques used in modern-day livestock production and best practices for housing and caring for animals. The center will have state-of-the-art classrooms; a large indoor arena in which animals can be viewed without having to be transported to another facility; animal barns; a public viewing area into those barns; and interactive, educational displays.

| 2 |  The Controlled Environment Agriculture Research Complex (CEARC), which had its ribbon cutting on Sept. 30, is a production research greenhouse and a work center to research sustainable food production technologies, including soilless and hydroponic production. One of the first CEARC projects is funded by a $3.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a smart greenhouse system using smart technology and artificial intelligence designed to sense the needs of plants to automatically adjust the growing conditions in the greenhouse and increase energy, water, and food system efficiencies.

| 3 |  A remodeled dairy will include new robotic feeding and milking technology. As part of modernizing the dairy, a robotic milking system will be added to the dairy barn, allowing cows to choose freely when they’re milked. The system will collect a range of data, a key part of cutting-edge dairy operations. The system can both milk and feed cows while tracking closely each cow’s level of health and production.

| 4 |  CFAES will have a strong connection to Carmenton, the new Innovation District on West Campus, designed to house public and private partners as well as Ohio State scientists and students from across a range of disciplines, together, in focused research teams called “neighborhoods,” to exchange knowledge, understand problems that seem insurmountable, develop new technologies, and accelerate bringing the solutions to market that the world needs now. CFAES researchers will serve as members of multiple of those neighborhood teams.