UCSD - University of California - San Diego

01/12/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/12/2026 11:20

Farm-to-Table via Supercomputer

Published Date

January 12, 2026

Article Content

Picture a Northern California vineyard, rows of grapevines bathed in morning fog, workers hand-thinning vines, exposing them to sunlight, and the slow rhythm of the seasons guiding each harvest. But unseen in that pastoral setting are the data pouring constantly from the vines, the earth and even the air. And those streams of information may become as essential to agriculture as irrigation and sunshine. Quietly powering the data analysis that makes all of this possible - is the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego's School of Computing, Information and Data Science.

Across California, researchers, farmers, technologists and universities are launching a bold vision for the future of farming: "precision agriculture," an approach that uses advanced sensors, networking and artificial intelligence to help growers make more informed decisions.

A new demonstration project at Iron Horse Vineyards, in Sonoma County, is showing how digital agriculture might work on a real farm. The initiative is being driven by CENIC (the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California), whose statewide high-speed research network brings advanced connectivity to institutions across the state. By linking Iron Horse directly to CENIC's ultra-fast network, researchers can stream huge amounts of environmental and biological data in real time. SDSC then helps turn that raw information into practical insights.

And this collaboration - between a family-run vineyard, a statewide research network, and some of the world's most powerful scientific computing resources - may help shape the future of agriculture across the nation.

A Vineyard Becomes a Living Laboratory

Joy Sterling, owner, Iron Horse Vineyards. Credit: Iron Horse Vineyards

Iron Horse Vineyards, just outside Sebastopol, CA, is run by second-generation owner Joy Sterling, one of the country's most outspoken advocates for bringing technology to America's farms. Sterling recently served on a Federal Communications Commission task force examining the connectivity needs of modern agriculture and helped create recommendations to guide national policy.

Sterling's vineyard is now serving as a living agricultural laboratory, working closely with CENIC, SDSC, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College, AT&T, Emergent and other partners. Together, they are building a testbed to study how environmental sensors, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing can improve crop yields while conserving water and protecting the land.

Since the project's launch in late 2024, the team has laid down the final leg of a fiber connection to the vineyard, installed a 10-gigabit-per-second CENIC router and deployed a first wave of field sensors measuring soil moisture, temperature, fog, rainfall and carbon dioxide. Drones and e-bikes outfitted with ultra-high-resolution multispectral cameras can now sweep over the vines, gathering imagery that reveals plant health in extraordinary detail.

This flood of data - collected around the clock, across every corner of the vineyard - creates the perfect real-world challenge for SDSC's computing expertise.

From the Soil to the Supercomputer

"Agriculture today is a matter of national security. We need technology that supports sustainability, resilience and full traceability of the food we produce." - Joy Sterling, owner, Iron Horse Vineyard

Behind the scenes, UC San Diego plays a pivotal role in turning vineyard data into insights farmers can use. SDSC specializes in managing colossal datasets and running complex simulations that would be impossible on standard computers. For agriculture, that capability is transformative.

SDSC researchers help process the torrents of sensor readings and drone imagery, identify emerging patterns and train machine-learning models that can predict everything from optimal watering schedules to the ideal moment to harvest grapes.

One of the project's major ambitions is to create a "digital twin" of the vineyard - a continuously updated virtual replica built from real-time data. This digital twin will allow researchers to run tests and simulations without touching a single vine. They might evaluate how a drought could affect growth, how temperatures vary across slopes or where a new sensor should be placed to improve accuracy.

But creating such a digital twin requires immense computational muscle. That's where SDSC shines.

"AI can tease out non-obvious relationships between vine locations, watering patterns, and growth," explained John Graham, senior development engineer at SDSC. "If there's a drought, AI can help inform whether to spray water or employ fans to disperse moisture, whether to use drip irrigation or even determine which type of fish in a holding pond might create the most nutrient-rich water for the vines."

These insights are not abstract theories - they can drive meaningful change. In California's Central Valley, for example, sensors similar to those installed at Iron Horse are being implemented in other test beds by Emergent Connext, in one instance, helping a farm cut its water use by 10 percent, a major savings in a state facing chronic drought.

CENIC Network as the Data Grapevine

To make this project possible, CENIC provides the digital backbone: its statewide California Research and Education Network (CalREN), an 8,000-mile, ultra-high-bandwidth infrastructure connecting universities, laboratories and research institutions. In June 2025, CENIC extended a 10-gigabit link directly to Iron Horse Vineyards with the help of AT&T, making the vineyard one of the most connected agricultural sites in the United States.

CENIC's AI Resource Network (CENIC AIR) adds yet another layer, tapping into the technical expertise of California universities - including UC San Diego - and enabling collaboration with students and faculty across the state. Data from Iron Horse can be shared with community colleges, Cal State campuses and research groups - supporting wide-ranging educational and scientific work.

Opening New Paths for Students and Researchers

One of the most inspiring elements of the project is its educational mission. CENIC and SDSC engaged students from Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College through internships at both on-site labs and the virtual National Research Platform. Real world, hands-on opportunities for students at both the four-year and community college levels with local industry are among the exciting possibilities that data-driven precision agriculture provides.

"This effort will generate remarkable new opportunities for students," said CENIC President and CEO Louis Fox. "It is the first chapter in a larger initiative to create testbeds that advance state-of-the-art practices across critical fields and build pathways to new careers in AI-related fields for all Californians."

Adds SDSC Director Frank Würthwein, "When students can work with real, living data from real environments, education transforms. And partnering with local industry is a model that can be replicated in other regions around the country. We're giving them the tools and the opportunity - from community college to the graduate level - to enable and create the future they want to live in."

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Powering Data in the Vineyard

While sensors and drones gather information from every corner of Iron Horse Vineyards, the real computational heavy lifting happens 500 miles south at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). As one of the nation's premier high-performance computing facilities, SDSC provides the analytical backbone that turns raw agricultural data into actionable insights.

Why SDSC Matters:

  • Massive Data Processing: Vineyard sensors generate gigabytes of data on soil health, moisture, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide. SDSC's advanced systems can process this data at unprecedented speed and scale.
  • Machine Learning & AI: SDSC researchers develop algorithms that detect trends invisible to the human eye - predicting optimal irrigation schedules, identifying microclimates and modeling plant stress.
  • Collaboration Across California: Through CENIC's statewide network, SDSC seamlessly connects to universities, community colleges and research partners, enabling education, training and cross-disciplinary innovation.
  • Climate Adaptation Research: The insights generated at SDSC will help farmers statewide adapt to drought, temperature extremes and shifting weather patterns.
  • Building the Digital Twin: SDSC is central to creating a virtual replica of the vineyard, allowing researchers to test hypotheses and simulate climate impacts without touching the actual vines. The only thing missing is a glass of wine at the end of the day!

"This kind of real-time, data-rich agriculture simply isn't possible without supercomputing," said SDSC senior research scientist John Graham. "SDSC's role is to transform millions of data points into knowledge - and ultimately into better decisions for growers facing changing climates."

From powering digital agriculture to supporting statewide sustainability efforts, SDSC stands at the center of a new wave of innovation bringing cutting-edge science to California's oldest profession: farming.

Student Alex Nava and research scientist John Graham meet in the vineyard. Credit: CENIC AIR

A Glimpse into the Future of Farming

The work at Iron Horse Vineyards is only the beginning. Like a sumptuous dinner, that initial glass of wine precedes the meal to come. These early forays into data-driven agriculture will be replicated in all realms of farming. As weather patterns reshape growing seasons, water availability and weather patterns, farmers everywhere will need tools that offer precision, prediction and crop resilience. By connecting vineyards to networks, sensors to algorithms and data to supercomputers, this project shows how agriculture can adapt.

And in pairing students from universities and community colleges with local industries, these exciting new forays into precision agriculture not only open the door for new generations of researchers, scientists and farmers of the future, but also addresses matters of food health, supply and security for the nation and, one day, beyond our borders.

With CENIC's unparalleled connectivity, SDSC's supercomputing power and the hands-on expertise of growers and researchers, the vineyards, the crop fields and grazing pastures of the future may look much like Iron Horse today: rooted in tradition, powered by technology and ready for a changing world.

Learn more about research and education at UC San Diego in: Artificial Intelligence

UCSD - University of California - San Diego published this content on January 12, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on January 12, 2026 at 17:20 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]