Samantha Robinson, an associate professor with more than a decade of experience teaching and consulting, recently joined the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics and the School of Human Environmental Sciences to bolster research and collaborative projects.
Behind the scenes of modern agricultural research are the statisticians who help make sense of the data and guide the design of studies before they even start.
Samantha Robinson, an associate professor of statistics and data science with more than a decade of experience teaching and consulting in statistics, biostatistics and data science roles, recently joined the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics and the School of Human Environmental Sciences.
The Center for Agricultural Data Analytics, also known as CADA, is a part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the U of A System Division of Agriculture. CADA's mission is to advance research and collaboration in cutting-edge data science. The School of Human Environmental Sciences is based within the Division of Agriculture and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.
Robinson has applied her expertise in statistics to various fields, from cancer research to child play therapy and even research on snake bites.
Most recently, Robinson was vice chair in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and a faculty member with the U of A Data Science program. She is a U of A Teaching Academy Fellow and has been recognized for teaching at the university, regional and national levels.
Robinson has also worked with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Department of Family and Preventive Medicine as a senior applications systems analyst. She still works as a consultant for the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus.
"I'm very excited about the center and consulting in general," Robinson said. "A lot of people go out and do a study before consulting in advance. Unfortunately, what they collect can answer some questions but maybe not the questions they really wanted to answer."
Robinson has also served as the director of the Center for Statistical Research and Consulting for the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, which she sees as complementary to the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics in serving the needs of the U of A System.
"I'm glad to see that CADA, what used to be the Ag Statistics Lab, is growing," Robinson said. "The need for statistical support has been tremendous because we are an R1 institution."
"R1" is a designation by the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education recognizing institutions with at least $50 million in research and development spending and 70 doctoral research degrees.
The Center of Agricultural Data Analytics works alongside Division of Agriculture and U of A scientists and external researchers to lead collaborative research projects and advance novel statistical and data science research to address current problems. One recent example of that research for Robinson has been working with food scientists to help fine-tune instruments that weigh and measure byproducts in poultry processing.
The CADA team includes Richard Adams, assistant professor of agricultural statistics with the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology; Samuel Fernandes, assistant professor of agricultural statistics and quantitative genetics with the departments of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences and Horticulture; Aranyak Goswami, an assistant professor specializing in bioinformatics with the Animal Science and Poultry Science departments; and Kevin Thompson, program associate II.
While the CADA team is capable of consulting researchers on a wide variety of projects for them to perform their own studies, there are also several ongoing collaborations.
For example, Fernandes is working with Division of Agriculture researchers to breed blackberries for improved flavor, rice for high night temperatures and genomic prediction to improve soybean breeding, to name a few. A couple of recent papers he co-authored with other researchers addressed soybean resistance to target spot and potassium losses in runoff from cotton fields.
Adams is working with Division of Agriculture researchers to launch integrative studies of major insect pests in the state, including the rice stinkbug, which is estimated to cost Arkansas growers nearly $16 million annually. Adams' recent co-authored publications with fellow Division of Agriculture colleagues include a study of genetic variability in Arkansas honeybees.
As a bioinformatician, Goswami brings his expertise in computational and genomic analysis, combined with statistical rigor, to teach agriculture students how to apply these skills in their work. With experience teaching and mentoring master's and Ph.D. students in bioinformatics and statistics at Stanford and Yale universities, Goswami will collaborate with Adams, Fernandes and Robinson to cover programming, statistics and data analysis. Goswami said the collaborative efforts with CADA faculty will provide him a "valuable opportunity to ignite student interest and address gaps in these essential areas while fostering a strong, cooperative learning environment."
The center's acting director is Jean-François Meullenet, division senior associate vice president for agriculture-research and director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. Meullenet said he believes education is key to unlocking the potential of statistical and data science in agricultural research.
Meullenet encouraged researchers to use the center's consulting services at the design stage of their projects to ensure objective-appropriate statistical analyses for their project.
"We strive to make a meaningful impact by harnessing the power of Big Data to provide new insights into algorithms and approaches that address the most pressing questions in agricultural and biological research," Meullenet said.
The Center for Agricultural Data Analytics also offers applied statistics courses for agricultural, food and life science graduate students. The courses provide students an understanding of statistics and its role in scientific research, emphasizing concepts and applications rather than highly mathematical statistical theory, Meullenet added.
To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on X at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture: The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture's mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation's historic land grant education system. The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses. The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
John Lovett, project/program specialist
Agricultural Communication Services
479-763-5929, jl119@uark.edu
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