More Clout, Less Drought: Jiang's NSF research looks to bring digital agriculture from soil to STEM

More Clout, Less Drought: Jiang's NSF research looks to bring digital agriculture from soil to STEM

Friday, October 3, 2025

Media Contact: Kristi Wheeler | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-5831 | [email protected]

In an era of increasing importance for sustainable agriculture and resource efficiency, innovative research is critical.

According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, 2024 was the warmest year on record, with months when 10% or more of the continental U.S. faced drought-like conditions.

Dr. Zheyu Jiang, an assistant professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, specializes in AI and digital agriculture, and is undertaking a research project to lessen the impacts of drought in the U.S., which experiences an estimated loss of $30 billion annually.

For these efforts, Jiang has been awarded the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.

This is the most prestigious award bestowed by the NSF and will provide $500,000 through 2029 for Jiang's efforts to improve the viability and economic potential of water-efficient, sensor-driven irrigation on farmland. Current technological barriers result in only about 12% of irrigated farms in the U.S. deploying soil moisture sensing.

His research leverages real-time soil moisture and salinity data gathered by sensors placed in strategic areas of a field. These, added with mathematical models describing complex water and solute flow dynamics in soil, will enable a digital-twin solution to be created that could accurately estimate the profiles of moisture and salt content in a field in real-time.

Based on this valuable information, an optimal irrigation schedule can be determined to inform farmers of the best time and amount to irrigate their fields to minimize water consumption and maintain soil moisture level and crop health. Jiang said a farmer would ideally be able to use a mobile app that can be pulled up at any time to see the current situation of the soil.

A soil sensing testbed will be placed in one of Oklahoma State University's agricultural fields to validate the digital-twin solution data collected. It will also educate farmers and students who visit the testbed on soil sensing, digital agriculture and best irrigation practices. It provides students and farmers an opportunity to make an impact in real-world scenarios, setting them up for success with more experience in areas such as how AI can be used to modernize the food and agriculture sectors.

Through this project, Jiang looks to raise awareness of digital and sustainable farming among engineering students, farmers and local communities. He also aims to build and strengthen OSU's capabilities in scientific computing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture and sustainability, ensuring this research embodies the OSU land-grant mission.

Jiang would like to implement his research findings into the STEM curriculum, inspiring a new generation of engineers to continue using digital agriculture to help the country meet the growing food needs of a rising population.

In addition, he aims to develop a new course on sustainable systems engineering, adding process systems engineering, agriculture and sustainability to OSU's chemical engineering curriculum.

"I'm very grateful to receive this prestigious award. I proposed a lot of tasks with both research and education and how they integrate," Jiang said. "Having access to the support and the resources at OSU to pursue these exciting projects is a great honor. I also thank my department, CEAT, as well as colleagues and collaborators for their continuing support that made this award possible."

Photo: Tanner Holubar

Story by: Tanner Holubar | IMPACT Magazine