Photo by: Owen Main
Mechanics Bank Cal Poly Student-Athlete of the Week: Jacob Lindberg
10/6/2020 12:16:00 PM | Men's Soccer
From September through November, student-athletes from each of Cal Poly's fall programs will be highlighted through the Mechanics Bank Student-Athlete of the Week series.
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Jacob Lindberg had a predicament.
As a mechanical engineering major with a concentration in mechatronics, Lindberg had ambitions of securing summer internships to advance future career goals. As a member of the Cal Poly men's soccer program that reports for its preseason training camp in early August, the pursuit of those internships was hampered by a reduced summer.
Lindberg, a forward who started a career high four matches last fall, wasn't deterred as he'd had a love of engineering from a young age.
"My dad is a mechanical engineer and has does mechatronics work since I was born," said Lindberg of his father, Hanns. "He's the smartest man I've ever met and because he knew about fixing everything, I was excited and intrigued to understand just a fraction of the things that he knows when it comes to building and fixing things. I was blessed with perhaps the best father that any kid could ever dream of having. I only wish to make him proud for what he has given me as a dad."
A native of San Diego, Lindberg entered Cal Poly with an ambitious idea. And what unfolded during the ensuing years took Lindberg from the soccer field to the founding of a company and back.
"(My internship situation) drove me to excel in a way that I'd never previously thought I could," said Lindberg, who made 10 appearances and produced his second career assist for Cal Poly last fall. "It forced me to formulate my own ideas instead of working to build someone else's and as a result, I've gained a more comprehensive and holistic understanding for the facets of my major as well as the myriad other working parts that come in to place when immersed in the cooperate world."
Lindberg's idea was grand – "to build a drone that the world had not seen before." That drone would be dual terrain, able to fly, land and then drive (above). The financial needs were substantial and Lindberg and a friend quickly utilized the initial $1,000 grant received from the Cal Poly PROVE lab – a student-run, non-profit organization that strives to solve real-world issues by pushing the boundaries of engineering.
"In order to continue our dream of building something that was really cool, we had to find alternative methods to secure funding," Lindberg said. "This necessitated the development of a company around the 'idea' in order to receive more funding."
That's how the company Lindberg helped found – ScientificCalAg, Inc. – was born.
"SCA provides the world's first utilitarian agriculture drone to comprehensively locate and detect crop ailments within certain fields without the need for human intervention. Conventional products are only able to tell farmers where crop ailments are occurring and not what is causing those ailments," Lindberg said. "Depending on the size of the crop and the type of crop, the process that SCA provides would revolutionize the agriculture industry at a scale that the industry is desperate for, simply due to the increasing number of people inhabiting the planet in conjunction with the archaic methods of inefficient crop production.
"In 10 years, the scale by which we produce crops will not be enough to sustain the daily demand for food consumption per capita within the U.S., so what we are building is inevitably going to happen, whether it is with SCA or through another company."
Lindberg and his colleagues developed seven different prototypes between early 2017 and the summer of 2020, steadily bridging the gap between the first model (GenI) and the current model (GenVII) which is, "substantially more advanced and impressive from an engineering standpoint. It still isn't even near where it needs to be to reach the ultimate market viable product that the company is aiming to build."
Taking in the specifications currently present for the industry's leading precision agriculture drones, Lindberg and his colleagues augmented features that allowed them to not just fly over crops, but traverse through the crop rows and gain a ground perspective of the potential ailments that might plague the plants. Through machine learning, the drone would be able to diagnose the issue and report back.
"We wanted to improve upon the complete lack of full-circle demands when it comes to crop consulting and disease and pest detection within certain crops," Lindberg said. "We knew we had something when we were in third-round talks for millions of dollars' worth of series A funding from some of the industry's largest stakeholders."
After a few years of late working nights, the GenVII prototype was unveiled in February 2019 at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif., to instant success (right, Lindberg first from left in front of camera).
"The head administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstein, asked to meet us personally. We were televised on national news through PBS's documentary, 'American Grown: Our Job Depends on Ag', we had multiple interviews and journal publications named us one of the top 15 most exciting agricultural startups in the country for 2019," Lindberg said. "All of this happened within a couple months."
Things became such a success that Lindberg – working upwards of 15 hours a day – took academic leave of Cal Poly for the spring 2019 quarter. Lindberg and his colleagues spent the time enhancing the existing model to meet expectations for investors while making frequent trips to the Bay Area to meet with suppliers, venture capitalists and potential partners.
"It was an opportunity that I could not pass up and the people around me were very understanding of this opportunity, such as (Cal Poly head coach Steve Sampson and academic advisor Louise Torgerson)," Lindberg said. "I can't thank them enough for allowing me to take that opportunity and come back after I was done with all my work."
With advancement on the drone project continuing, Lindberg intends to graduate after the spring 2021 quarter and attend graduate school. The fall 2020 season would have been Lindberg's last in a Cal Poly uniform had the year not been postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Should play not resume until fall 2021, Lindberg – who redshirted during the 2016 season before competing the last three years – does not plan to return to the lineup.
"I think that the relationships I've made are what I'll ultimately remember the most after my time at Cal Poly. I'm only who I am due to the people I've surrounded myself with for the past four years. I'm a product of my coaches, teammates and my friends and I can't thank them enough for believing in me every step of the way," Lindberg said. "Soccer is the only reason that I've felt so blessed to be given the opportunities I've felt throughout the past two decades. It's become a part of me to the point where if I'm not playing, I feel as if I might as well have lost a limb, for that's what the loss would feel like if it simply went away."
@CPMustangs • #RideHigh
Main photo courtesy of Owen Main / story photos courtesy of Jacob Lindberg
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Jacob Lindberg had a predicament.
As a mechanical engineering major with a concentration in mechatronics, Lindberg had ambitions of securing summer internships to advance future career goals. As a member of the Cal Poly men's soccer program that reports for its preseason training camp in early August, the pursuit of those internships was hampered by a reduced summer.
Lindberg, a forward who started a career high four matches last fall, wasn't deterred as he'd had a love of engineering from a young age.
"My dad is a mechanical engineer and has does mechatronics work since I was born," said Lindberg of his father, Hanns. "He's the smartest man I've ever met and because he knew about fixing everything, I was excited and intrigued to understand just a fraction of the things that he knows when it comes to building and fixing things. I was blessed with perhaps the best father that any kid could ever dream of having. I only wish to make him proud for what he has given me as a dad."
A native of San Diego, Lindberg entered Cal Poly with an ambitious idea. And what unfolded during the ensuing years took Lindberg from the soccer field to the founding of a company and back.
"(My internship situation) drove me to excel in a way that I'd never previously thought I could," said Lindberg, who made 10 appearances and produced his second career assist for Cal Poly last fall. "It forced me to formulate my own ideas instead of working to build someone else's and as a result, I've gained a more comprehensive and holistic understanding for the facets of my major as well as the myriad other working parts that come in to place when immersed in the cooperate world."
 |
Lindberg's idea was grand – "to build a drone that the world had not seen before." That drone would be dual terrain, able to fly, land and then drive (above). The financial needs were substantial and Lindberg and a friend quickly utilized the initial $1,000 grant received from the Cal Poly PROVE lab – a student-run, non-profit organization that strives to solve real-world issues by pushing the boundaries of engineering.
"In order to continue our dream of building something that was really cool, we had to find alternative methods to secure funding," Lindberg said. "This necessitated the development of a company around the 'idea' in order to receive more funding."
That's how the company Lindberg helped found – ScientificCalAg, Inc. – was born.
"SCA provides the world's first utilitarian agriculture drone to comprehensively locate and detect crop ailments within certain fields without the need for human intervention. Conventional products are only able to tell farmers where crop ailments are occurring and not what is causing those ailments," Lindberg said. "Depending on the size of the crop and the type of crop, the process that SCA provides would revolutionize the agriculture industry at a scale that the industry is desperate for, simply due to the increasing number of people inhabiting the planet in conjunction with the archaic methods of inefficient crop production.
"In 10 years, the scale by which we produce crops will not be enough to sustain the daily demand for food consumption per capita within the U.S., so what we are building is inevitably going to happen, whether it is with SCA or through another company."
Lindberg and his colleagues developed seven different prototypes between early 2017 and the summer of 2020, steadily bridging the gap between the first model (GenI) and the current model (GenVII) which is, "substantially more advanced and impressive from an engineering standpoint. It still isn't even near where it needs to be to reach the ultimate market viable product that the company is aiming to build."
Taking in the specifications currently present for the industry's leading precision agriculture drones, Lindberg and his colleagues augmented features that allowed them to not just fly over crops, but traverse through the crop rows and gain a ground perspective of the potential ailments that might plague the plants. Through machine learning, the drone would be able to diagnose the issue and report back.
"We wanted to improve upon the complete lack of full-circle demands when it comes to crop consulting and disease and pest detection within certain crops," Lindberg said. "We knew we had something when we were in third-round talks for millions of dollars' worth of series A funding from some of the industry's largest stakeholders."
 |
After a few years of late working nights, the GenVII prototype was unveiled in February 2019 at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif., to instant success (right, Lindberg first from left in front of camera).
"The head administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstein, asked to meet us personally. We were televised on national news through PBS's documentary, 'American Grown: Our Job Depends on Ag', we had multiple interviews and journal publications named us one of the top 15 most exciting agricultural startups in the country for 2019," Lindberg said. "All of this happened within a couple months."
Things became such a success that Lindberg – working upwards of 15 hours a day – took academic leave of Cal Poly for the spring 2019 quarter. Lindberg and his colleagues spent the time enhancing the existing model to meet expectations for investors while making frequent trips to the Bay Area to meet with suppliers, venture capitalists and potential partners.
"It was an opportunity that I could not pass up and the people around me were very understanding of this opportunity, such as (Cal Poly head coach Steve Sampson and academic advisor Louise Torgerson)," Lindberg said. "I can't thank them enough for allowing me to take that opportunity and come back after I was done with all my work."
With advancement on the drone project continuing, Lindberg intends to graduate after the spring 2021 quarter and attend graduate school. The fall 2020 season would have been Lindberg's last in a Cal Poly uniform had the year not been postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Should play not resume until fall 2021, Lindberg – who redshirted during the 2016 season before competing the last three years – does not plan to return to the lineup.
"I think that the relationships I've made are what I'll ultimately remember the most after my time at Cal Poly. I'm only who I am due to the people I've surrounded myself with for the past four years. I'm a product of my coaches, teammates and my friends and I can't thank them enough for believing in me every step of the way," Lindberg said. "Soccer is the only reason that I've felt so blessed to be given the opportunities I've felt throughout the past two decades. It's become a part of me to the point where if I'm not playing, I feel as if I might as well have lost a limb, for that's what the loss would feel like if it simply went away."
@CPMustangs • #RideHigh
Main photo courtesy of Owen Main / story photos courtesy of Jacob Lindberg
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