Presentation: Not Your Grandfather's Tractor

A brief look at current trends in agricultural automation and autonomy, the technologies that are driving the transformation, and where they will take us.

Mark Moran Lead, Advanced Sensing Emerging Technology Head, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group - Champaign

Mark has two roles at John Deere. He leads the Advanced Sensing team in the Emerging Technology group that is building the next generation of the IoT (For Deere, that’s the Internet of Tractors). He’s also the head of the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group office in Champaign at the University of Illinois Research Park.

In Mark’s 20-plus years at John Deere, he has had roles in Global IT, Enterprise Architecture, Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Marketing, and Advanced Engineering. In all of those roles, he has been focused on how Information & Communication Technology can both transform and disrupt enterprises like John Deere. Before joining Deere, Mark was a civil engineer managing airport construction.

Mark hold a BS in Engineering from the University of Illinois (1993), an MBA from the University of Iowa (2003), and an SM in System Design & Management from MIT (2011). He is currently pursuing his PhD in Informatics at the University of Illinois, studying the application of text-mining and natural language processing to voluntary reporting for large, publicly traded companies.

Mark and his wife Lori live in Urbana, Illinois with their four dogs. They have two college-aged daughters (both Illini).

Presentation: Farming-As-A-Service

An overview of the Farming-as-a-Service company model, performing row-crop field operations using advanced intelligent autonomous equipment.

Craig Rupp CEO, Farmer Sabanto

Craig Rupp is the CEO of Sabanto, a Farming-as-a-Service company performing row-crop field operations using advanced intelligent autonomous equipment. Headquartered in Chicago, Sabanto has been working on autonomous field operations for the past two years throughout the midwest. Craig has a deep history with agriculture technology having developed the StarFire Receiver, Greenstar Display, and founded 640 Labs bringing the industry the FieldView Drive. He was a Senior Director and Senior Fellow at the Climate Corporation prior to his latest endeavor.

Schedule

REGISTRATION NOTE

Non-members that pay to attend a webinar can apply their $15 non-member registration fee to their membership dues purchase by contacting the Chapter Administrator following the webinar.