Visionaries: The extension spirit guides open-source thinking
Dennis Buckmaster is helping develop advanced technology and he wants to give it away.
He's not crazy. The professor of agricultural and biological engineering just believes strongly in the land-grant mission. The land-grants are public universities (like Purdue) that were founded in order to bring education, research, and outreach to the citizens of each state. For Buckmaster, the land-grant ideal isn't just a relic, it's a reality.
With the Open Agriculture Technologies and Systems (OATS), Buckmaster and others aim to use open-source technology to the agriculture industry. But to be successful, the center has to give away the code to developers. OATS members allow other people and companies to take their codes and produce them further.
And it was the land-grant mission that really inspired Buckmaster's idealism.
In an era where researchers race to get the latest patent, Buckmaster's ideal is to simply advance knowledge for the common good. His agenda is to ensure that the researchers and programmers who follow him will create something even more useful for the agriculture and farming industries.
Buckmaster places a lot of time and effort into making sure the students involved with OATS are doing their job and correctly constructing the codes.
Without the land-grant mission, it would unlikely that Purdue University would be agriculture-centered and that OATS would have developed into what it is currently.
Meet the Filmmaker/Blogger
Khyleigh North About Visionaries
This blog and video are part of the Visionaries series, which highlights the work and lives of researchers in the Purdue University College of Agriculture. The content for this series is created by the students of ASEC 280 (Digital Storytelling).
Explore other videos and blogs created by our student-filmmakers
Videos are also available on the Purdue Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication YouTube channel
Featured Stories
Gary Steinhardt’s father once told him that he would never leave their farm because living...
Purdue Animal Sciences celebrated student creativity with an art show and departmentwide costume...
A tiny insect called the Hessian fly began plaguing U.S. wheat fields during the American...
Although Dean Zimmerman (BS Wildlife 1971) retired in 2015 after spending 43 years with the...
Dr. Jessica Gurevitch invites readers into a deeper understanding of the Earth system and its...
Farmer sentiment improved in October as the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose...