Fatimatzahra Muhammad, a second-year PhD student in the Department of Animal Biosciences, is working under the advisement of Dr. Angela Canovas. Her research focuses on identifying strategies to mitigate methane emissions and improve feed efficiency in the beef and dairy cattle industry. Muhammad began working with Agri-Food Data Canada (ADC) in late 2022 during her Master’s at the University of Guelph, wanting to engage with the university’s innovative initiatives and contribute to its impactful work in the agricultural sector.
At ADC, Muhammad assists in closing the data loop on multiple projects at both the Ontario Beef Research Centre and Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre. Her primary responsibility is to oversee the conversion of historical files, some dating back to the 1990s, into organized datasets that can be used for downstream analyses and seamless integration into data management systems. Working with fish data from the Aquaculture Research Centre presented a distinct set of challenges for Muhammad, who had a background in equine physiology and behavioural neuroscience. It was here that she truly understood the value of research schemas and the transformative work that ADC is doing.
The impacts of this work are already being realized within the research community and in Muhammad’s research. She points to Dr. Katharine Wood’s lab at the University of Guelph, where data schemas are being co-constructed in shared frameworks so that data collected in one place can be utilized in others. Being able to share data concisely cuts down on labor time in the collecting stage, and while it may require more time upfront, Muhammad believes the benefits easily outweigh the initial investment As data becomes a more essential tool for predicting, improving, and increasing the efficiency of Canadian food and agricultural industries, early adopters of FAIR and future-ready data practices, like Muhammad, are well-positioned to shape the future of research and production in these sectors.
