031: How IoT is Powering Precision Agriculture

Welcome to episode #31 of IoT Product Leadership, a podcast featuring in-depth conversations with product leaders on what it takes to build great IoT products. I’m your host, Daniel Elizalde.     IoT can be a force of good to help fight some of the biggest problems in the world. That’s why I’m so excited about this episode. My guest today is Ranveer Chandra, Principal Researcher, Microsoft.     In this episode, Ranveer walks us through the FarmBeats project, where he leads research on applying IoT to improve yields in farms.    This is the fourth episode in my IoT series with Microsoft and it’s a great one. To learn more about Ranveer, about Microsoft FarmBeats, and to access the resources mentioned in this episode, visit iotproductleadership.com.      I’m excited to share with you that I’m embarking on a new IoT journey. I’m thrilled to be joining a successful company and have the opportunity to contribute to their IoT efforts.     Therefore, this is the last episode I’ll release for some time. I’ll continue to create great IoT content for you, but in a different way. I’m excited to share more details with you soon.    But for now, I want to take a moment to thank all the people that have contributed to the podcast. First of all, thank you to all my guests for your time and your wisdom. Also, thank you to my team, Erin Russell and Nina Pollock. Without you, there would be no podcast! And of course, thank you for listening and for all those emails you sent me with your support.    Thank you from the bottom of my heart.     About Ranveer Chandra:  Ranveer Chandra is the Chief Scientist at Azure Global. His research has shipped in multiple Microsoft products, including Windows, XBOX, Azure, Visual Studio, and Surface. Ranveer is leading the FarmBeats, battery research, and TV white space projects at Microsoft. He has published over 80 papers, and filed over 100 patents, of which over 85 granted by the USPTO. He has won several awards, including the MIT Technology Review’s Top Innovators Under 35 (TR35). Ranveer has a PhD from Cornell University.   Topics we discuss in this episode:  Ranveer shares his background and about Azure Global. The FarmBeats project, how it got started and what its goal is. The components of the solution: sensors, gateway, edge software, cloud platform, AI, front-end applications. How Ranveer used TV white spaces to enable Wi-Fi connectivity. The use of drones in the FarmBeats project. Top learnings discovered throughout the FarmBeats project. Ways to generalize these learnings so that more farmers can benefit from this research and those IoT solutions. The impact of FarmBeats so far and how Ranveer envisions it helping farmers globally. Advice for Product Leaders who are new at developing IoT solutions.    To learn more about Ranveer:  Ranveer on LinkedIn On Twitter @RanveerChandra FarmBeats tracks soil, moisture data 24/7   Free download: Don’t forget to download my IoT product strategy template, for free.   Related Resources: What Is An IoT Product Manager? IoT Framework for Product Managers How to Build an IoT Product Roadmap