OCTOBER 8, 2002
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM (ATP) AND ISCA TECHNOLOGIES, INC., INVEST $2,718,000 INTO MORITOR FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FULLY AUTONOMOUS PEST MONITORING AND CONTROL SYSTEM

ATP and ISCA partner for the development of a fully autonomous pest monitoring and control system that integrates recent advances in insect behavior manipulation and sensor technologies with information technologies into a highly automated pest management program that will drastically reduce the time it takes to detect to the presence of pest and vectors of diseases and respond with appropriate management actions. The development of this automated system will have repercussions in areas beyond agriculture, such as in early detection and alarm of presence of bio-terrorism agents and monitoring and control of vectors of disease, such as Dengue and West Nile Disease vectors.

Damage caused by agricultural pests is estimated at $300 billion annually, or 30-40 percent of potential global food, fiber, and feed products. The present rate of increase in yield is much less than required to meet projected increases in food demand. To date, agricultural pest management techniques lack the data collection technologies needed to improve crop yields. Farmers currently rely on time-consuming, manual pest management methods that often come too late to prevent pest infestations. Present methods entail costly blanket spraying of insecticides on entire farms, which is inefficient, ecologically harmful and conducive to the development of pesticide resistance.

ISCA Technologies, Inc. (Riverside, CA) is further developing an integrated pest management system (known as the Moritor System) to effectively control pests and minimize environmental damage: instantaneous field data acquisition and analysis will automate detection and treatment of pest outbreaks. Field traps with data loggers, optics, acoustics, and pressure sensors will allow the precise identification of captured insects and tracking of their populations in real time. A wireless network of traps, sensors, and actuators will transmit a continuous, orderly stream of data to a centralized internet database that determines pest activity, density, and location; it will also deliver the necessary pest management actions and evaluate their effectiveness. Powerful geographical and statistical tools will mine this large database, conceivably revealing patterns that would otherwise be too elusive to detect. The result will be the generation of a new knowledge base in the field of pest management. This technology can be extended to both the detection and control of insects vectoring medically important diseases and the very real threat of bio-terrorism. That is, the widespread use of the Moritor System in agricultural and urban settings would allow for the instantaneous flagging of suspect trends and activities. Technical risks involve the variety of pests that must be identified, successful automation and integration of the various technologies, and the potentially low compliance of farmers' scheduled activities. Benefits include elimination of unnecessary insecticide spraying, reduced environmental contamination, decreased overhead cost to farmers, higher quality food, and increased production. Collectively, these benefits will help farmer cooperatives, commodity markets, the FDA, the EPA and the consumer. “Moritor currently employs handheld devices to gather field data. This funding allows us to further integrate recent advances in insect behavior manipulation and sensor technologies with information technologies into a highly automated pest management program that will drastically reduce the time it takes to detect to the presence of pest and vectors of diseases and respond with appropriate management actions. This system will transform the way pest management works from remedial to preventative,” reports Dr. Agenor Mafra-Neto, CEO of ISCA Technologies.

“The investment will immediately create eight new high paying jobs at ISCA, with the potential, as commercialization of the fully automated system starts, of injecting substantially more capital into, and creating new jobs in the Inland Empire region,” points out Annlok Yap, Finance Director of ISCA Technologies.

Read about the ATP award announcement at: http://www.atp.nist.gov/awards/00005342.htm

ABOUT THE NIST ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) bridges the gap between the research lab and the market place, stimulating prosperity through innovation. Through partnerships with the private sector, ATP’s early stage investment is accelerating the development of innovative technologies that promise significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits for the nation. As part of the highly regarded National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the ATP is changing the way industry approaches R&D, providing a mechanism for industry to extend its technological reach and push out the envelope of what can be attempted. Technology research in the private sector is driven by today’s global, economic realities. The pace of technological change is faster than ever before, and victory goes to the swift. These realities force companies to make narrower, shorter-term investments in R&D that maximize returns to the company quickly. The ATP views R&D projects from a broader perspective – its bottom line is how the project can benefit the nation. In sharing the relatively high development risks of technologies that potentially make feasible a broad range of new commercial opportunities, the ATP fosters projects with a high payoff for the nation as a whole – in addition to a direct return to the innovators.

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