Pivot Bio 2021 interns: A bird's eye view on data collection

Students from across the U.S. join Pivot Bio each summer to get hands-on experiences in a high-growth ag startup.  As interns, they are valuable members of the Pivot Bio team and make lasting contributions on the company during their time here. 

As they return to school for the fall semester, several of our 2021 interns reflected on their experiences and shared what they learned in the first of this three-part series.  

When it comes to studying crops, I like to look at things from a bird’s eye view. 

My name is Suresh Pradhyun Kashyap and I’m a graduate student at the University of Nebraska, pursuing a master’s degree in agricultural engineering. I interned with the Pivot Bio Product Development team in Missouri this summer. I’m also a certified drone pilot, so I spent the past few months flying drones with various sensor attachments high above the fields as my team’s eyes in the sky. 

We used drones to get a macro view of our trial fields to see how the plants were progressing.  The drone footage was another metric we used to analyze how tall, green, or dense the crops planted with Pivot Bio PROVEN^® 40 microbes compared to the control plants.  After each drone flight, I converted the 2D images to 3D imagery and packaged the data to develop metrics descriptive of plant canopy architecture for use by other Pivot Bio researchers.  

I wanted to intern with a highly motivated company that had a strong mission. Pivot Bio turned out to be a great fit, as my experiences helped me bridge the gap between what I learned in school and the ways I can apply that knowledge in reality. 

My specific experiences at work have led me to realize a new way of thinking. This hands-on experience really helped me see the difference we can make by refining new technologies to address agricultural needs. I saw first-hand how Pivot Bio’s microbes can serve as a very real, very sustainable alternative to synthetic fertilizers.  

This is the third in a series of stories and experiences from Pivot Bio interns.

Interested in a summer 2022 internship with Pivot Bio?  Our fall application deadline was extended to November 10, 2021.