August 11, 2025 • 24 mins
What happens when Ph.D. candidates, master’s students, undergrads and interns all share the same greenhouse? You get a powerful, layered research environment that grows more than just plants.
In this episode of Inside IALR, we explore how the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) Innovation Center is not only advancing sustainable agriculture but also training the next generation of researchers and industry leaders. A partnership between IALR and Virginia Tech, the CEA Innovation Center blends hands-on research, mentorship and workforce development.
You’ll hear how students at four different educational levels are conducting applied research on plant disease management, beneficial microbes and nutrient optimization. From mentoring interns to designing dissertation-level experiments, these students are learning and growing.
🎙 Guests:
- Dr. Kaylee South – Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Virginia Tech (stationed full-time at IALR)
- Colin Fite – M.S. Student, Virginia Tech
- Praveen Gajula – Ph.D. Student, Virginia Tech
🔍 Topics Covered:
- What Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is and why it matters
- How beneficial microbes are being tested in vertical farms and greenhouses
- The role of students in maintaining IALR’s demonstration farm
- Mentorship across education levels—from intern to Ph.D.
- Career goals of students entering the CEA industry
- Opportunities for students to join the CEA Innovation Center
Whether you're an educator, student, grower or just curious about the future of agtech, this episode offers a glimpse into how research, education and industry come together under one greenhouse roof.
The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research serves as a regional catalyst for economic transformation in Southern Virginia. Our services, programs and offerings are diverse, impactful and far reaching.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Caleb Ayers (00:09):
Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR.
Thanks for being here.
One of the cool things we haveon campus is called the CEA
Innovation Center and CEA standsfor Controlled Environment
Agriculture.
That's something we run inpartnership with Virginia Tech
and what's cool about this isthat this facility is all about,
you know, kind of doingresearch to advance the
controlled environmentagriculture industry, but also
(00:30):
training the next generation ofworkers, and it's been cool to
see that kind of come reallycome together this summer, as
we've had and one of our guests,Dr South, will talk more about
this but we've had graduatelevel students, both PhD and
master students, We've hadundergraduate students, We've
had interns all working therethis summer collectively, so
(00:51):
that's been been cool to see.
But we have three guests whoare here from the CEA Innovation
Center and I'm going to let youall introduce yourself.
Say your name, your title andyour favorite pizza topping.
Kaylee South (01:01):
My name is Kaylee South.
I am an assistant professor andextension specialist in the
School of Plant andEnvironmental Sciences at
Virginia Tech.
My favorite pizza topping, Ithink, is pepperoni.
Colin Fite (01:13):
Classic Can't go wrong.
My name is Colin Fite, I'm amaster's student at Virginia
Tech and my favorite pizzatopping is also pepperoni.
Praveen Gajula (01:20):
Classic.
Hi, I'm Praveen Gajla.
I'm a second year PhD studentat Virginia Tech.
My favorite piece of topping ischicken, that's a good, good,
unique choice.
Caleb Ayers (01:31):
I like that.
I was scared you were going tosay pepperoni and then I was
going to say pepperoni and I wasgoing to have to throw that
question out the window becausethat's boring.
So yeah, I think you know whatthe work that you guys are doing
in the CEA Innovation Center isreally cool and has that's been
growing a lot here at IALR inthe last several years and is
becoming a very important partof what we do.
But, Kaylee, I'll kind of letyou start as far as set the
(01:52):
scene of you know what what iscontrolled environment,
agriculture, big picture andkind of as an industry.
What is that and where is itgoing?
Kaylee South (01:59):
CEA or controlled environment agriculture is
broadly applied to a couple ofdifferent ways that we produce
crops within protectedenvironments.
So it ranges from producingcrops within semi-controlled or
not as highly controlledenvironments, such as high
(02:20):
tunnels, all the way up tocompletely controlled, where we
have plants growing in indoorvertical farms and then in
between that we have greenhouses.
Virginia has a really richhistory of greenhouse production
.
We've been growing plants andgreenhouses dating back.
I think the earliest mentionwas in the 1700s.
The first mention of agreenhouse being built in
(02:43):
Virginia was then, and so sincethen the primary crop that's
grown in greenhouses in Virginiawould be the ornamental
category, so that would be likeyour bedding plants, so that
would be like your pansies,petunias, those sorts of things
that are being grown ingreenhouses.
So that's a really importantcrop for Virginia.
(03:04):
Of things that are being grownin greenhouses, so that's a
really important crop forVirginia.
Recently, due to technologyadvancements and decreases of
prices of those technologies, aswell as demand from consumers,
there's been a shift forproducing crops edible crops and
medicinal crops inside ofgreenhouses and indoor vertical
farms.
There's been a you know, onebig reason for that is the
(03:27):
demand from consumers and theneed to improve our ability to
get food to locations wherethere's not easy access to fresh
produce, and so we socontrolled environment
agriculture is one that isstarting to take off because of
those reasons, and so inVirginia, a lot of our effort on
(03:49):
the government side, as well ason the research and training
side, is going into makingVirginia a very important, key
and friendly place for buildingor implementing greenhouse or
indoor vertical farm productionsystems for the production of
edible and medicinal crops.
Caleb Ayers (04:08):
That's an excellent rundown there.
And for you, colin Praveen, howdid you guys end up, I guess?
Yeah, tell me about your kindof your educational journey and
how you ended up here at the CEAInnovation Center in Danville.
Colin Fite (04:21):
In my undergraduate.
I was a bachelor's of chemistryand a bachelor of biochem dual
major.
I didn't really have muchexperience with growing plants
or anything of the sort.
But I did some undergradresearch working with corn or
maize, and that's where Istarted getting interested in
(04:41):
the plants.
So I started looking intodifferent programs and I decided
upon Virginia Tech with DrSouth.
Praveen Gajula (04:50):
What about for you?
I did my bachelor's back inIndia and I came to the States
in 2022 to do my master's.
I got my master's in agronomyfrom Mississippi State
University.
That's where I was doing alittle bit of research on using
sustainable ways to improve theproduction.
(05:10):
So that's at the end of mymaster's.
I kind of hadn't thought to domy PhD, so that's where I
started to look for funding andI had the opportunity to meet Dr
Kelly South, so that's how Iended up being here.
We had a couple of meetings, weshared our research interests
(05:32):
and that's where we matched likedoing some sustainable ways to
improve the production for theCEA as well.
Caleb Ayers (05:38):
And I didn't mention up front but Kaylee is a
Virginia Tech professor and whois stationed full-time here at
IALR working with the CEAInnovation Center, working with
students, working with extensionagents, all sorts of things
like that.
So as far as kind of what goeson in the CEA Innovation Center
for all three of you, kind oftell me about what you guys have
been up to, what your researchhas looked like, what you've
(06:00):
learned so far.
Kaylee South (06:01):
I'll give like a broad overview of what we're
doing in the CE InnovationCenter.
So we focus on a couple ofdifferent crops and a couple of
different major topics.
I would say some of the broadcategories that we fall into is
the use of beneficial microbesfor improvements of crop
production, whether that bethrough the control of plant
(06:23):
pathogens or through theimprovement of growth rate of
crops, or the improvement ofquality, like nutritional
quality or the visual quality ofthe crop, and then also in
nutrient use.
Another way is to improve thesustainable production aspect,
so reducing nutrient input andmaybe inputs of other types of
(06:46):
things that are needed to beable to produce the crops as
well.
Another major category would benew crop development, and so
we're focused on a couple ofdifferent up and coming crops
that would be either for nichemarkets or ones that could be a
major crop within CEA.
Those include things likeedible flowers.
We also work with herbs such asdill and fennel, and then we
(07:09):
also work with various projectswith different cultivars and
species of microgreens, and thenwe also do applications of like
other types of biotechnology.
So we have a grant right nowwhere we're looking at
applications of RNAi-basedbiopesticides within CEA
facilities, and then those are.
(07:31):
We also collaborate with ILRfor the robotics side of things,
looking at the use of roboticsand imaging for applications in
research as well as applicationsin the production side of
things, and so I believe thoseare probably our major
categories of research that wehave going on.
(07:52):
We also have industrycollaborations where we work
with companies Our big one, thatright now would be with Canon
Virginia Inc.
So we have a collaborativeproject with them.
And then we also, of course, asyou mentioned, we train
students and then we also hostvarious opportunities for
(08:13):
education for various audiences,ranging from the general public
, k through 12, extension agents, growers, cea suppliers, those
sorts of things.
So we have probably quite abreadth of things that are going
on out in the CEA InnovationCenter.
Caleb Ayers (09:00):
It's kind of like ILR as a whole.
You can't really explain it inone sentence.
So for you guys, colin andPraveen, kind of what have I
know?
You said you got here this likein the past few months, correct
?
So what kind of has yourresearch looked like so far?
What are you learning?
What are you hoping toaccomplish while you're here?
Praveen Gajula (09:24):
My research topic is a little bit diverse.
As a part of my PhD, I had todevelop my dissertation with a
couple of objectives, but mine'sa little different, where I had
diverse things that I wasexploring, which has plant
disease management.
I have nutrition stuff as well,as we are using the microbial
inoculants to improve theproduction side of things.
I have started my project inmid-June and I have my project
(09:46):
going on right now in the smarttables that the ILR has.
So I think we have pretty goodresearch going on right now and
we have a couple of moreobjectives that we think we
might start them in somewhere inmid-September and you'll be
(10:06):
here for two years.
Right, I'll be here for twoyears, or maybe two and a half.
Caleb Ayers (10:14):
that's the timeline , so plenty of time to be on
another podcast way down theline.
Oh yeah, sure what about foryou, colin.
Colin Fite (10:22):
I don't really have a ton of time.
I have to get all of myobjectives done in the span of a
year.
So currently I've just beenworking on getting familiar with
the systems and working withfertilizer and adjusting pHs of
the solutions.
I've been playing around with acouple of like mini systems,
(10:44):
deep water culture stuff likethat, just to get familiar
before I get into my fullexperimental runs.
So I don't really have any ofmy objectives pushing out right
now.
So I don't really have any ofmy objectives pushing out right
now, but they'll start a littlebit before or a little bit after
the upcoming summit, the CEASummit East.
But my research is going to bemainly be focusing on beneficial
(11:05):
microbes, either individuallyor in a consortium, which is
just a combination forapplication mainly in basal Cool
.
Caleb Ayers (11:16):
I know you guys are just kind of getting started on
your research here and, kaylee,you can chime in here if needed
as well.
But how do you see, I guess,the work that you're doing here,
the research that you're doinghere, I guess, first, what are
your career goals and how do yousee this research, this work,
this experience contributing to?
Praveen Gajula (11:30):
those using a couple of biologicals.
That's where my interest turnedto horticulture, because I was
mainly focused on fieldproduction kind of thing and I
want to switch my career tohorticulture.
I did that and I had anopportunity to learn more about
(11:54):
horticulture crops and what kindof systems they use and what
kind of crops they do grow inthe field as well as in the cea.
Um, I am pretty sure that Iwanna I'm not pretty sure, but
I'm still in a dilemma that Imight, uh, choose an academia
(12:16):
side or as an industry, but.
But I was more focused onresearch kind of thing.
So it might be an academia oran industry, but my research
should be focused on thebiological side and the
beneficial microbes.
Colin Fite (12:31):
That's cool.
And what about for you, colin?
For my career goals, I have acouple of ideas.
I like planning ahead.
So one of the things that Iwould like to do is open up my
own analytical testing site fordifferent plants, similar to
what they have at the IALR with,like Jack in the chemistry
(12:53):
department.
But another one of my goals, ifthat doesn't work out, is to
just be able to work in the CEAindustry, because it's very
interesting and I think that thebeneficial microbe aspect is
gaining a lot of traction,especially in the research side
of things.
But if it could be applied intocommercial production in a
(13:17):
variety of different crops thatthey grow, not just leafy greens
, I think it would be beneficial.
Caleb Ayers (13:24):
And I mentioned up front that over the summer we
had you two, so PhD student,master student, a undergraduate
student from Virginia Tech, andthen also two summer interns.
So, kaylee, you have beensupervising all of that, summer
interns.
So, kaylee, you have beensupervising all of that.
So what's kind of theenvironment been like with those
four levels of students, kindof, you know, conducting
(13:46):
research, learning the ropes?
What has that been like?
How do you, I guess, supportthose different types of
students?
Kaylee South (13:52):
It creates a really, I think, positive
learning environment and a goodopportunity to for students to
mentor, like for the graduatestudents.
It gives an opportunity forthem to mentor the interns in
areas where they have strengths,such as like in building
powerpoints and writing forscientific purposes.
(14:13):
The graduate students havementored the interns in
developing their powerpoints andare about to start reviewing
their research reports that theywrite at the end of the summer.
So our interns areundergraduates at various, they
come from different universitiesand colleges and so they come
in with varying levels ofexperience working within a lab
(14:35):
and working with plants, and soit gives a really cool
opportunity for us to be able to, for them to be able to conduct
independent research and thenalso for them to learn from our
undergraduate student who isabout to go start his his
undergraduate degree at VirginiaTech.
He just graduated from DC, fromDaneville Community College,
(14:59):
and he has been had anopportunity to mentor the
interns as well, so giving himsome mentoring experience as
well as training, being able totrain others with all the
knowledge that he's learned inthe last two years two and a
half years or so that he'sworked in the lab.
For me, you know, havingdifferent levels of students
(15:19):
gives an opportunity to be ableto you know you alter your, what
you're teaching or kind of whatyour goals are for the students
.
So for the interns, the goal isfor them to learn the general
aspects of horticulture, growingcrops within vertical farms and
greenhouses, as well as thegeneral scientific process.
(15:43):
So developing the project idea,your hypothesis, and then
taking that all the way throughto data collection, analysis and
then writing up the results atthe end.
And then we have anundergraduate student who's
where.
He's been here for several yearsand so he could pretty much run
the greenhouse if he needed to.
He's been working on maintenanceas well as in running projects,
(16:04):
and so he's at a differentlevel in his knowledge and his
skills, both in the greenhouseand his knowledge of how the lab
works within itself.
And then for the graduatestudents, they are working on
fulfilling and building theirthesis and dissertation work.
They are working on fulfillingand building their thesis and
dissertation work, and so forthat they have a bit more of an
(16:24):
independence in their work.
So part of their programs isfor them to explore their ideas
and to build them independently,with guardrails, of course,
with staying within the realmsof our facility and within the
realms of our funding that wereceive.
But for the most part theireducation is a bit different to
where now they're applyingmultiple ideas, looking at
(16:45):
various systems, working both inthe laboratory as well as in
the greenhouse to learn skills,to learn how to be a scientist,
how to be good horticulturist,and then also to gain leadership
skills as well.
So it's a lot of the samethings but applied on different
levels, based on the intern allthe way up to the graduate
(17:06):
students.
Caleb Ayers (17:07):
And for you guys getting to mentor the interns
and even you know theundergraduate student as well.
I mean, what is, what has thatbeen like for you guys getting
to step?
Colin Fite (17:14):
into that.
It hasn't been awkward oranything.
Most of the undergraduates theywere in our shoes about or
there we were in their shoesabout two years ago or so.
So there's not really adisconnect and I think it's very
(17:35):
helpful for both of us to beable to teach and also get
insight from, like Jacob, theundergrad that helps in the
vertical farms.
He does he does a lot of hisown stuff For me.
Praveen Gajula (17:40):
I would say it was a good experience working
with the interns because, as DrSouth mentioned, they come from
different backgrounds andthey're doing their internship
with the IALR.
So it's kind of a diverse thingwhere we are trying to give
(18:01):
them the knowledge that we haveand we are happy to take what
they are trying to say or whatthey are conveying us to listen
to.
Overall, it was a goodexperience for us to learn and
teach them something in the CEA.
Caleb Ayers (18:12):
I say teaching is a good way to learn stuff, so
that's good for you guys.
The more you get to do that,I'm sure, the more you're
learning these things as well.
Obviously, we have differentlevels of graduate students,
undergraduate students, who willbe here year-round, but
especially during the summerwhen we have interns.
Having those four levels there,how does that contribute to the
(18:34):
success of the CEA InnovationCenter and how is that idea part
of its mission?
Kaylee South (18:39):
to begin with, Having the group that we have
with the different levels ofstudents and technicians.
I think that it fulfills acouple of different goals of the
CEA Innovation Center, one, ofcourse, being the research.
So they are key in carrying outthe research that we do within
(19:00):
the CEA Innovation Center.
The students are the ones whothey assist with coming up with
the research ideas.
They are the ones who,primarily, they take the lead on
setting up and setting up theirprojects, collecting the data,
analyzing the data and thenreporting it, and so because of
(19:27):
that, they each level of studentis in making sure that we get
the data that we need to be ableto gain the knowledge that's
needed to fill some of the gapsin the industry and within the
horticulture research field ingeneral.
So they're really important inmoving forward the research side
of things.
They're also key in developingoutreach materials also key in
(19:53):
developing outreach materials.
So all the students haveparticipated in writing
extension articles or willassist in writing extension
articles that will be publishedthrough the corporate of
extension the Virginia corporateof extension, throughout the
station, throughout the state ofVirginia.
So they'll be publishingarticles through that route to
share with the general public,growers and extension agents.
The students are also importantfor our demonstration farm.
(20:16):
So we have the CEA InnovationCenter.
Our facility not only servesfor research but also for
demonstrating our research aswell as new technology and
things like that, and so thestudents are really key in
maintaining that facility aswell as helping to provide tours
to the people that come throughthe facility as well.
(20:37):
And I think the secondimportant goal that students
help us meet our goals withinthe CE Innovation Center is
through training.
One of our goals is to use ourcollective resources and
expertise through Virginia Techand IALR for training students
(20:59):
to, you know, to go into theirfields of interest, but then
also to move forward the CEAindustry itself, and so it's a
really key part of, I think, thegoals of the state in general
to train students to enter andto strengthen the CEA industry.
Caleb Ayers (21:13):
I mean, as you mentioned, virginia Tech and ILR
are both on board with that andeven even with Go Tech.
I mean I know that you and Iknow you helped with that
process of implementing thatwhere middle schoolers are
learning about controlledenvironment agriculture in a
very hands on way throughoutVirginia middle schools and
that's a very you got to showthem what it is, then they can
know how to pursue it.
That's all the questions that Ihave.
(21:34):
I think you know it's cool.
Cool to have this conversation.
I wish we could have everylevel in here, but we don't have
enough enough mics for that.
But cool to have this.
You know this conversationabout all the different types of
students that are in the CEAInnovation Center, all the cool
research that you guys areinvolved in.
Is there anything else that youall would want to add or think
it's important that people know?
Colin Fite (21:54):
Before I even started looking for programs.
Prior to finding this program,I honestly didn't know much
about CEA in general.
I came from North Carolina so Iwas just assuming that most of
the food that gets produced isfield-based.
So I was just assuming thatmost of the food that gets
produced is field based.
But after coming to Virginiaand touring a couple of
(22:16):
facilities, it's honestlyshocking at how many different
like leafy greens and everythingis getting produced in Virginia
and it was kind of almost aculture shock between North
Carolina and Virginia because Ihonestly don't know of many
facilities in North Carolinathat have this level of like
(22:39):
commercialization in the CEAindustry.
Caleb Ayers (22:42):
That's cool to see you jumping on board that quick
and getting excited about it.
So anything else you guys wantto add.
Kaylee South (22:48):
I would just say that if there's anybody that has
interest in CEA or gettinginvolved as a student, either as
an intern or volunteering, orwants to become a master's or
PhD student to study doingresearch within CEA, that we
have positions that open upevery now and then We'll post
(23:09):
them on our website, theCEAICcom or org, I don't know,
we might have to figure it out.
I have it pulled up.
Praveen Gajula (23:18):
Okay.
Kaylee South (23:19):
It's org.
I'll say that again oh, org,okay.
So if anybody's interested,they'll have to check our
website, the CEAICorg, so thatwe can.
We'll post job opportunitiesand on there because we will
offer internships, undergraduateresearch, technician positions,
as well as master's and PhDlevel on our website.
(23:39):
So if anybody's interested inbecoming a student, we would
gladly, gladly, be interested inchatting with them.
Caleb Ayers (23:46):
Awesome.
Thank you all for being here,appreciate it.
Kaylee South (23:48):
Thank you.
Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR.
Thanks for being here.
One of the cool things we haveon campus is called the CEA
Innovation Center and CEA standsfor Controlled Environment
Agriculture.
That's something we run inpartnership with Virginia Tech
and what's cool about this isthat this facility is all about,
you know, kind of doingresearch to advance the
controlled environmentagriculture industry, but also
(00:30):
training the next generation ofworkers, and it's been cool to
see that kind of come reallycome together this summer, as
we've had and one of our guests,Dr South, will talk more about
this but we've had graduatelevel students, both PhD and
master students, We've hadundergraduate students, We've
had interns all working therethis summer collectively, so
(00:51):
that's been been cool to see.
But we have three guests whoare here from the CEA Innovation
Center and I'm going to let youall introduce yourself.
Say your name, your title andyour favorite pizza topping.
Kaylee South (01:01):
My name is Kaylee South.
I am an assistant professor andextension specialist in the
School of Plant andEnvironmental Sciences at
Virginia Tech.
My favorite pizza topping, Ithink, is pepperoni.
Colin Fite (01:13):
Classic Can't go wrong.
My name is Colin Fite, I'm amaster's student at Virginia
Tech and my favorite pizzatopping is also pepperoni.
Praveen Gajula (01:20):
Classic.
Hi, I'm Praveen Gajla.
I'm a second year PhD studentat Virginia Tech.
My favorite piece of topping ischicken, that's a good, good,
unique choice.
Caleb Ayers (01:31):
I like that.
I was scared you were going tosay pepperoni and then I was
going to say pepperoni and I wasgoing to have to throw that
question out the window becausethat's boring.
So yeah, I think you know whatthe work that you guys are doing
in the CEA Innovation Center isreally cool and has that's been
growing a lot here at IALR inthe last several years and is
becoming a very important partof what we do.
But, Kaylee, I'll kind of letyou start as far as set the
(01:52):
scene of you know what what iscontrolled environment,
agriculture, big picture andkind of as an industry.
What is that and where is itgoing?
Kaylee South (01:59):
CEA or controlled environment agriculture is
broadly applied to a couple ofdifferent ways that we produce
crops within protectedenvironments.
So it ranges from producingcrops within semi-controlled or
not as highly controlledenvironments, such as high
(02:20):
tunnels, all the way up tocompletely controlled, where we
have plants growing in indoorvertical farms and then in
between that we have greenhouses.
Virginia has a really richhistory of greenhouse production
.
We've been growing plants andgreenhouses dating back.
I think the earliest mentionwas in the 1700s.
The first mention of agreenhouse being built in
(02:43):
Virginia was then, and so sincethen the primary crop that's
grown in greenhouses in Virginiawould be the ornamental
category, so that would be likeyour bedding plants, so that
would be like your pansies,petunias, those sorts of things
that are being grown ingreenhouses.
So that's a really importantcrop for Virginia.
(03:04):
Of things that are being grownin greenhouses, so that's a
really important crop forVirginia.
Recently, due to technologyadvancements and decreases of
prices of those technologies, aswell as demand from consumers,
there's been a shift forproducing crops edible crops and
medicinal crops inside ofgreenhouses and indoor vertical
farms.
There's been a you know, onebig reason for that is the
(03:27):
demand from consumers and theneed to improve our ability to
get food to locations wherethere's not easy access to fresh
produce, and so we socontrolled environment
agriculture is one that isstarting to take off because of
those reasons, and so inVirginia, a lot of our effort on
(03:49):
the government side, as well ason the research and training
side, is going into makingVirginia a very important, key
and friendly place for buildingor implementing greenhouse or
indoor vertical farm productionsystems for the production of
edible and medicinal crops.
Caleb Ayers (04:08):
That's an excellent rundown there.
And for you, colin Praveen, howdid you guys end up, I guess?
Yeah, tell me about your kindof your educational journey and
how you ended up here at the CEAInnovation Center in Danville.
Colin Fite (04:21):
In my undergraduate.
I was a bachelor's of chemistryand a bachelor of biochem dual
major.
I didn't really have muchexperience with growing plants
or anything of the sort.
But I did some undergradresearch working with corn or
maize, and that's where Istarted getting interested in
(04:41):
the plants.
So I started looking intodifferent programs and I decided
upon Virginia Tech with DrSouth.
Praveen Gajula (04:50):
What about for you?
I did my bachelor's back inIndia and I came to the States
in 2022 to do my master's.
I got my master's in agronomyfrom Mississippi State
University.
That's where I was doing alittle bit of research on using
sustainable ways to improve theproduction.
(05:10):
So that's at the end of mymaster's.
I kind of hadn't thought to domy PhD, so that's where I
started to look for funding andI had the opportunity to meet Dr
Kelly South, so that's how Iended up being here.
We had a couple of meetings, weshared our research interests
(05:32):
and that's where we matched likedoing some sustainable ways to
improve the production for theCEA as well.
Caleb Ayers (05:38):
And I didn't mention up front but Kaylee is a
Virginia Tech professor and whois stationed full-time here at
IALR working with the CEAInnovation Center, working with
students, working with extensionagents, all sorts of things
like that.
So as far as kind of what goeson in the CEA Innovation Center
for all three of you, kind oftell me about what you guys have
been up to, what your researchhas looked like, what you've
(06:00):
learned so far.
Kaylee South (06:01):
I'll give like a broad overview of what we're
doing in the CE InnovationCenter.
So we focus on a couple ofdifferent crops and a couple of
different major topics.
I would say some of the broadcategories that we fall into is
the use of beneficial microbesfor improvements of crop
production, whether that bethrough the control of plant
(06:23):
pathogens or through theimprovement of growth rate of
crops, or the improvement ofquality, like nutritional
quality or the visual quality ofthe crop, and then also in
nutrient use.
Another way is to improve thesustainable production aspect,
so reducing nutrient input andmaybe inputs of other types of
(06:46):
things that are needed to beable to produce the crops as
well.
Another major category would benew crop development, and so
we're focused on a couple ofdifferent up and coming crops
that would be either for nichemarkets or ones that could be a
major crop within CEA.
Those include things likeedible flowers.
We also work with herbs such asdill and fennel, and then we
(07:09):
also work with various projectswith different cultivars and
species of microgreens, and thenwe also do applications of like
other types of biotechnology.
So we have a grant right nowwhere we're looking at
applications of RNAi-basedbiopesticides within CEA
facilities, and then those are.
(07:31):
We also collaborate with ILRfor the robotics side of things,
looking at the use of roboticsand imaging for applications in
research as well as applicationsin the production side of
things, and so I believe thoseare probably our major
categories of research that wehave going on.
(07:52):
We also have industrycollaborations where we work
with companies Our big one, thatright now would be with Canon
Virginia Inc.
So we have a collaborativeproject with them.
And then we also, of course, asyou mentioned, we train
students and then we also hostvarious opportunities for
(08:13):
education for various audiences,ranging from the general public
, k through 12, extension agents, growers, cea suppliers, those
sorts of things.
So we have probably quite abreadth of things that are going
on out in the CEA InnovationCenter.
Caleb Ayers (09:00):
It's kind of like ILR as a whole.
You can't really explain it inone sentence.
So for you guys, colin andPraveen, kind of what have I
know?
You said you got here this likein the past few months, correct
?
So what kind of has yourresearch looked like so far?
What are you learning?
What are you hoping toaccomplish while you're here?
Praveen Gajula (09:24):
My research topic is a little bit diverse.
As a part of my PhD, I had todevelop my dissertation with a
couple of objectives, but mine'sa little different, where I had
diverse things that I wasexploring, which has plant
disease management.
I have nutrition stuff as well,as we are using the microbial
inoculants to improve theproduction side of things.
I have started my project inmid-June and I have my project
(09:46):
going on right now in the smarttables that the ILR has.
So I think we have pretty goodresearch going on right now and
we have a couple of moreobjectives that we think we
might start them in somewhere inmid-September and you'll be
(10:06):
here for two years.
Right, I'll be here for twoyears, or maybe two and a half.
Caleb Ayers (10:14):
that's the timeline , so plenty of time to be on
another podcast way down theline.
Oh yeah, sure what about foryou, colin.
Colin Fite (10:22):
I don't really have a ton of time.
I have to get all of myobjectives done in the span of a
year.
So currently I've just beenworking on getting familiar with
the systems and working withfertilizer and adjusting pHs of
the solutions.
I've been playing around with acouple of like mini systems,
(10:44):
deep water culture stuff likethat, just to get familiar
before I get into my fullexperimental runs.
So I don't really have any ofmy objectives pushing out right
now.
So I don't really have any ofmy objectives pushing out right
now, but they'll start a littlebit before or a little bit after
the upcoming summit, the CEASummit East.
But my research is going to bemainly be focusing on beneficial
(11:05):
microbes, either individuallyor in a consortium, which is
just a combination forapplication mainly in basal Cool
.
Caleb Ayers (11:16):
I know you guys are just kind of getting started on
your research here and, kaylee,you can chime in here if needed
as well.
But how do you see, I guess,the work that you're doing here,
the research that you're doinghere, I guess, first, what are
your career goals and how do yousee this research, this work,
this experience contributing to?
Praveen Gajula (11:30):
those using a couple of biologicals.
That's where my interest turnedto horticulture, because I was
mainly focused on fieldproduction kind of thing and I
want to switch my career tohorticulture.
I did that and I had anopportunity to learn more about
(11:54):
horticulture crops and what kindof systems they use and what
kind of crops they do grow inthe field as well as in the cea.
Um, I am pretty sure that Iwanna I'm not pretty sure, but
I'm still in a dilemma that Imight, uh, choose an academia
(12:16):
side or as an industry, but.
But I was more focused onresearch kind of thing.
So it might be an academia oran industry, but my research
should be focused on thebiological side and the
beneficial microbes.
Colin Fite (12:31):
That's cool.
And what about for you, colin?
For my career goals, I have acouple of ideas.
I like planning ahead.
So one of the things that Iwould like to do is open up my
own analytical testing site fordifferent plants, similar to
what they have at the IALR with,like Jack in the chemistry
(12:53):
department.
But another one of my goals, ifthat doesn't work out, is to
just be able to work in the CEAindustry, because it's very
interesting and I think that thebeneficial microbe aspect is
gaining a lot of traction,especially in the research side
of things.
But if it could be applied intocommercial production in a
(13:17):
variety of different crops thatthey grow, not just leafy greens
, I think it would be beneficial.
Caleb Ayers (13:24):
And I mentioned up front that over the summer we
had you two, so PhD student,master student, a undergraduate
student from Virginia Tech, andthen also two summer interns.
So, kaylee, you have beensupervising all of that, summer
interns.
So, kaylee, you have beensupervising all of that.
So what's kind of theenvironment been like with those
four levels of students, kindof, you know, conducting
(13:46):
research, learning the ropes?
What has that been like?
How do you, I guess, supportthose different types of
students?
Kaylee South (13:52):
It creates a really, I think, positive
learning environment and a goodopportunity to for students to
mentor, like for the graduatestudents.
It gives an opportunity forthem to mentor the interns in
areas where they have strengths,such as like in building
powerpoints and writing forscientific purposes.
(14:13):
The graduate students havementored the interns in
developing their powerpoints andare about to start reviewing
their research reports that theywrite at the end of the summer.
So our interns areundergraduates at various, they
come from different universitiesand colleges and so they come
in with varying levels ofexperience working within a lab
(14:35):
and working with plants, and soit gives a really cool
opportunity for us to be able to, for them to be able to conduct
independent research and thenalso for them to learn from our
undergraduate student who isabout to go start his his
undergraduate degree at VirginiaTech.
He just graduated from DC, fromDaneville Community College,
(14:59):
and he has been had anopportunity to mentor the
interns as well, so giving himsome mentoring experience as
well as training, being able totrain others with all the
knowledge that he's learned inthe last two years two and a
half years or so that he'sworked in the lab.
For me, you know, havingdifferent levels of students
(15:19):
gives an opportunity to be ableto you know you alter your, what
you're teaching or kind of whatyour goals are for the students
.
So for the interns, the goal isfor them to learn the general
aspects of horticulture, growingcrops within vertical farms and
greenhouses, as well as thegeneral scientific process.
(15:43):
So developing the project idea,your hypothesis, and then
taking that all the way throughto data collection, analysis and
then writing up the results atthe end.
And then we have anundergraduate student who's
where.
He's been here for several yearsand so he could pretty much run
the greenhouse if he needed to.
He's been working on maintenanceas well as in running projects,
(16:04):
and so he's at a differentlevel in his knowledge and his
skills, both in the greenhouseand his knowledge of how the lab
works within itself.
And then for the graduatestudents, they are working on
fulfilling and building theirthesis and dissertation work.
They are working on fulfillingand building their thesis and
dissertation work, and so forthat they have a bit more of an
(16:24):
independence in their work.
So part of their programs isfor them to explore their ideas
and to build them independently,with guardrails, of course,
with staying within the realmsof our facility and within the
realms of our funding that wereceive.
But for the most part theireducation is a bit different to
where now they're applyingmultiple ideas, looking at
(16:45):
various systems, working both inthe laboratory as well as in
the greenhouse to learn skills,to learn how to be a scientist,
how to be good horticulturist,and then also to gain leadership
skills as well.
So it's a lot of the samethings but applied on different
levels, based on the intern allthe way up to the graduate
(17:06):
students.
Caleb Ayers (17:07):
And for you guys getting to mentor the interns
and even you know theundergraduate student as well.
I mean, what is, what has thatbeen like for you guys getting
to step?
Colin Fite (17:14):
into that.
It hasn't been awkward oranything.
Most of the undergraduates theywere in our shoes about or
there we were in their shoesabout two years ago or so.
So there's not really adisconnect and I think it's very
(17:35):
helpful for both of us to beable to teach and also get
insight from, like Jacob, theundergrad that helps in the
vertical farms.
He does he does a lot of hisown stuff For me.
Praveen Gajula (17:40):
I would say it was a good experience working
with the interns because, as DrSouth mentioned, they come from
different backgrounds andthey're doing their internship
with the IALR.
So it's kind of a diverse thingwhere we are trying to give
(18:01):
them the knowledge that we haveand we are happy to take what
they are trying to say or whatthey are conveying us to listen
to.
Overall, it was a goodexperience for us to learn and
teach them something in the CEA.
Caleb Ayers (18:12):
I say teaching is a good way to learn stuff, so
that's good for you guys.
The more you get to do that,I'm sure, the more you're
learning these things as well.
Obviously, we have differentlevels of graduate students,
undergraduate students, who willbe here year-round, but
especially during the summerwhen we have interns.
Having those four levels there,how does that contribute to the
(18:34):
success of the CEA InnovationCenter and how is that idea part
of its mission?
Kaylee South (18:39):
to begin with, Having the group that we have
with the different levels ofstudents and technicians.
I think that it fulfills acouple of different goals of the
CEA Innovation Center, one, ofcourse, being the research.
So they are key in carrying outthe research that we do within
(19:00):
the CEA Innovation Center.
The students are the ones whothey assist with coming up with
the research ideas.
They are the ones who,primarily, they take the lead on
setting up and setting up theirprojects, collecting the data,
analyzing the data and thenreporting it, and so because of
(19:27):
that, they each level of studentis in making sure that we get
the data that we need to be ableto gain the knowledge that's
needed to fill some of the gapsin the industry and within the
horticulture research field ingeneral.
So they're really important inmoving forward the research side
of things.
They're also key in developingoutreach materials also key in
(19:53):
developing outreach materials.
So all the students haveparticipated in writing
extension articles or willassist in writing extension
articles that will be publishedthrough the corporate of
extension the Virginia corporateof extension, throughout the
station, throughout the state ofVirginia.
So they'll be publishingarticles through that route to
share with the general public,growers and extension agents.
The students are also importantfor our demonstration farm.
(20:16):
So we have the CEA InnovationCenter.
Our facility not only servesfor research but also for
demonstrating our research aswell as new technology and
things like that, and so thestudents are really key in
maintaining that facility aswell as helping to provide tours
to the people that come throughthe facility as well.
(20:37):
And I think the secondimportant goal that students
help us meet our goals withinthe CE Innovation Center is
through training.
One of our goals is to use ourcollective resources and
expertise through Virginia Techand IALR for training students
(20:59):
to, you know, to go into theirfields of interest, but then
also to move forward the CEAindustry itself, and so it's a
really key part of, I think, thegoals of the state in general
to train students to enter andto strengthen the CEA industry.
Caleb Ayers (21:13):
I mean, as you mentioned, virginia Tech and ILR
are both on board with that andeven even with Go Tech.
I mean I know that you and Iknow you helped with that
process of implementing thatwhere middle schoolers are
learning about controlledenvironment agriculture in a
very hands on way throughoutVirginia middle schools and
that's a very you got to showthem what it is, then they can
know how to pursue it.
That's all the questions that Ihave.
(21:34):
I think you know it's cool.
Cool to have this conversation.
I wish we could have everylevel in here, but we don't have
enough enough mics for that.
But cool to have this.
You know this conversationabout all the different types of
students that are in the CEAInnovation Center, all the cool
research that you guys areinvolved in.
Is there anything else that youall would want to add or think
it's important that people know?
Colin Fite (21:54):
Before I even started looking for programs.
Prior to finding this program,I honestly didn't know much
about CEA in general.
I came from North Carolina so Iwas just assuming that most of
the food that gets produced isfield-based.
So I was just assuming thatmost of the food that gets
produced is field based.
But after coming to Virginiaand touring a couple of
(22:16):
facilities, it's honestlyshocking at how many different
like leafy greens and everythingis getting produced in Virginia
and it was kind of almost aculture shock between North
Carolina and Virginia because Ihonestly don't know of many
facilities in North Carolinathat have this level of like
(22:39):
commercialization in the CEAindustry.
Caleb Ayers (22:42):
That's cool to see you jumping on board that quick
and getting excited about it.
So anything else you guys wantto add.
Kaylee South (22:48):
I would just say that if there's anybody that has
interest in CEA or gettinginvolved as a student, either as
an intern or volunteering, orwants to become a master's or
PhD student to study doingresearch within CEA, that we
have positions that open upevery now and then We'll post
(23:09):
them on our website, theCEAICcom or org, I don't know,
we might have to figure it out.
I have it pulled up.
Praveen Gajula (23:18):
Okay.
Kaylee South (23:19):
It's org.
I'll say that again oh, org,okay.
So if anybody's interested,they'll have to check our
website, the CEAICorg, so thatwe can.
We'll post job opportunitiesand on there because we will
offer internships, undergraduateresearch, technician positions,
as well as master's and PhDlevel on our website.
(23:39):
So if anybody's interested inbecoming a student, we would
gladly, gladly, be interested inchatting with them.
Caleb Ayers (23:46):
Awesome.
Thank you all for being here,appreciate it.
Kaylee South (23:48):
Thank you.
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