If you have ever brought home seemingly fresh produce from the grocery store only to find it wilted and moldering a few days later, Tie Liu feels your pain. “Everybody has this problem: Which of these vegetables or fruits should I use first? Guess wrong, and you end up throwing out the food,” said Liu, a postharvest researcher and assistant professor in the UF/IFAS horticultural sciences department.
On a hot, muggy morning in July 2020, University of Florida President Kent Fuchs announced an astonishing $70 million public-private partnership between UF and NVIDIA, thus making artificial intelligence (AI) the centerpiece of a major, long-term initiative combining world-class research infrastructure, cutting-edge analysis and a revolutionary approach to curriculum.