Technologies for Agriculture and Living Systems
What if the same technologies that help us grow more food could also conserve our ecosystems and help our communities flourish?
The College of Agricultural Sciences envisions a future where advanced technologies help create sustainable, resilient agricultural systems interconnected with the living systems that sustain them.
A new vision for twenty-first century agroecosystems
The Technologies for Agriculture and Living Systems (TALiS) initiative is a unique, holistic approach that balances the need for increased food productivity and efficiency with a dedication to conserving our vital living systems.
These living systems include agriculture but also the adjacent forests, wetlands, and waterways—along with the biodiversity of plants, insects, and animals, and the resilience of our rural and urban communities. Pennsylvania’s landscapes offer an excellent testbed for integrating technologies across these different types of agriculture, natural, and social ecosystems. We envision Pennsylvania as a leader in developing and testing these integrated agroecosystems, serving as a living laboratory for scalable and practical solutions.
The TALiS initiative establishes a framework and roadmap to grow and support an entire pipeline of technological solutions, from early development to real-world application. These innovations in farming and ecology dramatically improve our ability to monitor and manage production and access to food, biodiversity and natural resources, and human health and wellbeing. This approach ensures a stable food supply, promotes environmental conservation, and boosts the economy of Pennsylvania by fostering innovation and creating new job opportunities.
Leading balanced innovation through the TALiS initiative.
Developing and testing emerging and advanced technologies from the lab to the field.
Serving as a trusted convener of audiences to address complex issues.
TALiS Practitioners at Penn State are faculty from the College of Agricultural Sciences who are experts in their fields and practice under one or more of TALIS's three pillars: Robotics and Automation, Biotechnology, and Monitoring, Sensing, and Prediction.
Latest News
February 25, 2026
Foodborne illness wastewater monitoring continues with new FDA funding
Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Health researchers will continue monitoring household sewage at dozens of municipal plants around the commonwealth for foodborne illness pathogens, with new funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The grant, anticipated to amount to more than $500,000 over five years, will complement related work funded by the FDA since 2016.
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February 25, 2026
Q&A: How can microbiome science solve problems in agriculture?
Microbiome — referring to the community of microorganisms inhabiting a specific organism — science may help solve problems facing agriculture, but prior research findings have not yet been translated to practical recommendations for growers, according to a team of scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences that has offered some ways to accelerate the transition.
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February 24, 2026
Some pesticides can slip under natural protection into streams, researchers find
Penn State researchers and their colleagues found that vegetative buffers, like shrubs or grasses, likely reduces the amount of specific pesticides from reaching a stream. However, the buffers are not protective against all pesticides entering waterways.
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February 5, 2026
‘Grass2Gas’ may be key to sustainable Pennsylvania dairy farms, study suggests
Implementing novel management practices in dairy farming, one of the commonwealth’s major agricultural industries, could help alleviate a large source of both nutrient pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a multidisciplinary team led by researchers at Penn State.
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Meet the Director
- Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
- Director, Technology in Agriculture and Living Systems Initiative, College of Agricultural Sciences
Areas of Expertise
- Specialty crop mechanization and automation
- Precision agriculture applications for specialty crops
- Applications of artificial intelligence to agricultural systems management and control
- Email hzh@psu.edu
- Office 814-865-2633
