{"691463":{"#nid":"691463","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ChatBot is Good News for People with Not-So-Green Thumbs","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EStarting and maintaining a new garden can be daunting. But a new multi-agent conversational system developed at Georgia Tech is taking much of the guesswork out of gardening for beginners.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECultivAgents is a three-agent system that fields gardening questions and creates tailored plans based on a user\u2019s gardening skill level, climate and environment, and cultural background.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe experience agent, environmental agent, and ethnobotanical agent inform one another and work together to guide users through the gardening process.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMulti-agent systems provide multi-faceted support,\u201d said Diana Wang, a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing who created CultivAgents. \u201cMy interest was in how we could provide more personalized and aligned support to individuals trying to grow food themselves while facing unique environmental or cultural factors.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGardening is a hobby that many people start but give up because of the time and effort it requires to be successful. Ryan Pemberton, a horticulturist at Georgia Tech\u2019s community garden, said the two biggest mistakes he sees novice gardeners make are starting too big and overwatering.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you\u2019ve never gardened before, trying to manage a large plot could be overwhelming,\u201d Pemberton said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou can start small. You don\u2019t have to have a big garden right away. You can start with one tomato plant and grow from there. See how well you can keep that one plant alive and then expand as you feel comfortable.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAside from the built-in health benefits of growing fresh food and working outdoors, Pemberton said gardening can lower your grocery bill and reduce carbon emissions by minimizing food transportation.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt can also be a great way for international students at Tech to grow foods native to their homelands. He said a tool like CultivAgents could be useful for determining whether Atlanta\u2019s climate is suitable.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPeople might want to grow a lot of different vegetables in their garden, but if you go too far south of here, it gets a little too hot to grow things like broccoli and strawberries,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA little north of here, it gets a little too cold to grow some species of peppers. Having something tell you what grows well in your region means you\u2019re not having to pick and choose or guess.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s one of the reasons Wang designed CultivAgents to feature multiple agents that consider unique environmental and cultural contexts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMultiple agents help distribute specific types of support as opposed to the generic support you often get from a single chatbot,\u201d Wang said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAnother advantage is that they tend to build on each other. The environmental agent builds on the experience agent\u2019s detailed steps. This allows the system to tell you how to grow bush beans, for example, within a specific local community.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang said she surveyed and interviewed new and experienced gardeners who use Tech\u2019s community garden to learn what they would want from a conversational agent. She found that many wanted step-by-step instructions and guidance on what to plant, how to plant it, and a schedule for upkeep.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAll of our users told us they view gardening as something that\u2019s long term, so they wanted this platform to be able to facilitate that kind of relationship,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe community garden is a shared space with nine garden beds. Pemberton said it\u2019s a great place for new gardeners to learn to grow food before starting their own gardens. Much of the food grown there is donated to Klemis Kitchen, Georgia Tech\u2019s on-campus food bank.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor more information about the community garden and how to get involved, visit\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sustainability.campusservices.gatech.edu\/community-garden\/\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/sustainability.campusservices.gatech.edu\/community-garden\/\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo see a live demo of CultivAgents, visit\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cultivagents.onrender.com\/\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/cultivagents.onrender.com\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECultivAgents is a three-agent system that fields gardening questions and creates tailored plans based on a user\u2019s gardening skill level, climate and environment, and cultural background.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new multi-agent conversational system is helping people start and maintain gardens."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-08-05 14:45:34","changed_gmt":"2026-08-05 15:15:00","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680797":{"id":"680797","type":"image","title":"26-R10410-P12-001-copy.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1785942231","gmt_created":"2026-08-05 15:03:51","changed":"1785942231","gmt_changed":"2026-08-05 15:03:51","alt":"Community Garden","file":{"fid":"265117","name":"26-R10410-P12-001-copy.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/05\/26-R10410-P12-001-copy.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/05\/26-R10410-P12-001-copy.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":194413,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/05\/26-R10410-P12-001-copy.jpeg?itok=O9WBm4sw"}}},"media_ids":["680797"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"194836","name":"Sustainability"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"48501","name":"gardening"},{"id":"47791","name":"community garden"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}