April 2024

Jon Davis joined the Department of Engineering and Computer Science in 2022, but began teaching in the Science Department in 2004. He has taught a wide variety of courses with NCSSM Online, NCSSM Connect, NCSSM Residential (in Durham and Morganton), Summer Accelerator, and Step Up to STEM. He loves all aspects of NCSSM’s educational mission, both on campus and extended learning throughout the state. He has taught courses in genetics, biotechnology, forensic science, environmental science, programming, data science and agriculture. Mr. Davis is a North Carolina native from Buncombe County, and a graduate of NCSSM-Durham. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Reed College and a master’s degree in botany from the University of Georgia, and tries to keep up with the latest developments in technology through continuing education. A short stint consulting at Google in 2014 encouraged him to keep developing new courses integrating agriculture and technology. 

For NCSSM Online, Mr. Davis developed a course in Agricultural Biotechnology, a key industry in Research Triangle Park, NC. This course is about one third seed improvement through plant breeding and biotechnology, one third digital agriculture, through the development of smart devices with sensors and microcontrollers, and one third global extension. His students have frequently participated in an academic competition sponsored by the World Food Prize Foundation to solve global food security challenges, winning domestic and international summer internships to conduct research in agriculture. In 2019, 10% of all USDA Wallace-Carver Fellows were his former NCSSM Online, Residential, and Connect students. 

Wanting to make his courses more authentic, Mr. Davis visited Uganda for a month in 2023 as part of a Fulbright-Hays immersion program. Prior to leaving for Uganda, he provided a new course, Digital Agriculture Engineering, to NCSSM-Durham students, and after his return, in 2024 he brought the course to Morganton. Students in our Residential and Online programs have the opportunity to collaborate with Ugandan students to develop smart devices for agriculture, like solar-powered hydroponics and drip irrigation systems. International collaborations like this are facilitated by the same set of tools that NCSSM Online students use to collaborate – virtual prototyping tools (Tinkercad), shared document collaboration (Google Workspace), video-conferencing (Zoom), and increasingly Generative AI, with chatbots (Inflection Pi AI) that work over messaging apps even in remote areas with limited bandwidth. 

Going forward, Mr. Davis plans to establish agro-voltaic gardens and a solar-powered high tunnel hoop house at NCSSM-Morganton. He is especially excited to work with engineering students to develop hydroponic gardens, plant growth chambers, farm automation solutions, and scientific instruments. He is also excited to facilitate research in biology and data science at these facilities. These opportunities are open to both residential and online students. Join NCSSM Online and… grow with us!