We are building REFRAME (Resource Engineering Framework for Responsible, Augmented Modeling Engagement ), an open, AI-enabled decision-support platform that helps farmers, industry, entrepreneurs, researchers, and policymakers identify opportunities to transform underutilized biomass resources into valuable bio-based products.
Every year, millions of tons of underutilized biomass resources are generated across agricultural production and processing systems. These resources include crop residues, forestry residues, livestock manure, food processing byproducts, and agricultural products that do not meet commercial specifications. Although these materials have tremendous potential to produce biofuels, biomaterials, biochemicals, and other value-added products, determining the most sustainable, economically viable, and regionally appropriate pathways remains a complex challenge.
The data, scientific expertise, and computational models needed to answer these questions already exist. However, they are often fragmented across disciplines, institutions, and software platforms, making it difficult to evaluate opportunities consistently and efficiently.
REFRAME brings the best available science together in a single open, modular framework that integrates data, artificial intelligence, and systems modeling to reduce uncertainty and support informed decision making before major investments are made.
By enabling rapid evaluation of biomass resources, supply chains, conversion technologies, and sustainability trade-offs, REFRAME has the potential to strengthen rural economies, improve resource efficiency, and accelerate the transition toward a resilient and circular bioeconomy.
Funded by a grant from Schmidt Sciences, the modular, AI-enabled, open-source platform will analyze the potential to convert previously discarded biomass into biofuels or other bioproducts.
REFRAME PIllars
Legacy & Surrogate Modeling
Led by Debjani Sihi, the Models pillars will identify legacy models in the supply chain that have been developed for years that are open source and that have been tackling one aspect of the supply chain — for example, agronomic models that analyze availability of biomass. This pillar will be critical in discovering how we can make connections between the models to increase efficiency in the pipeline of information.
Digtial Backbone
Led by Cranos Williams, the Digital Backbone pillar will create a digital environment where we can store and have the computing capacity to be able to run a model multiple times so that we can create AI surrogates that are much faster. By creating simplified versions of these models that run faster, we have the potential to predict things that were not previously possible with the legacy models. The resulting pipeline of models will become accessible to anyone out there as an AI-enhanced, open-source platform.
Stakeholder Engagement
Led by Joe Sagues, the Stakeholder Engagment platform works with industry stakeholders to receive vital perspectives for application of the REFRAME platform during its development and testing. The end goal is to have REFRAME used in research, policy and industry and extemded to external contributors.
NC State’s REFRAME Project Will Harness AI To Identify Business Opportunities in Crop Leftovers
NC State University researchers will use a grant from Schmidt Sciences to develop an AI-enabled, open-source platform that can analyze the potential to convert agricultural leftovers — biomass such as misshapen sweet potatoes or their discarded green tops — into biofuels or other bioproducts, creating new business opportunities.
Principal Investigator Associate Professor Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department; NC PSI Platform Director, Education & Workforce Development North Carolina State University
Debjani Sihi
Legacy and Surrogate Model Lead Assistant Professor Plant and Microbial Biology Department North Carolina State University
Cranos Williams
Digital Backbone Lead Goodnight Distinguished Professor Electrical & Computer Engineering Department; NC PSI Platform Director, Data-Driven Plant Sciences North Carolina State University
Joe Sagues
Stakeholder Engagement Lead Associate Professor Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department North Carolina State University
Lauren Maynard
Interdisciplinary Project Launch Director Office of Research and Innovation North Carolina State University
Sarah Harris
REFRAME Program Manager Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department North Carolina State University
Deepthi Nagareddy
REFRAME Full-Stack Developer Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department North Carolina State University
Mahmoud Sharara
Associate Professor and Extension Specialist Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department; Director, Animal & Poultry Waste Management Center North Carolina State University
Chris Reberg-Horton
Professor & Extension Organic Cropping Specialist Crop and Soil Sciences North Carolina State University NC PSI Platform Director, Resilient Agricultural Systems North Carolina State University
Jeremy Guest
Levenick Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Director, Levenick Center for a Climate-Smart Circular Bioeconomy Associate Director for Research, Institute for Sustainability, Energy, & Environment (iSEE) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Mariella Carbajal
Postdoctoral Research NC Plant Sciences Initiative Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering EnBiSys Research Laboratory
Laura Mora
PhD Student Operations Research Program KIETS Climate Leader Fellow North Carolina State University
Graham Louis
PhD Student Crop & Soil Sciences Department Global Change Fellow SE Climate Adaptation Science Center North Carolina State University
Kecheng Dai
PhD Student Biological & Agricultural Engineering Genetic Engineering & Society Fellow North Carolina State University
Wenjun Guo
PhD Student Civil & Environmental Engineering University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Carly Sussman
PhD Student Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department North Carolina State University
Laiba Hasan
PhD Student Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department North Carolina State University
Haley Casper
Undergraduate Student Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department North Carolina State University
Jaya Alexander
Undergraduate Student Biological Engineering Program, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design North Carolina A&T State University Summer 2026
Brad Lewis
Program Manager, Ag Analytics Platform Plant Science Initiative North Carolina State University
Jason Jones
Director Policy & Economics Group, ICF
Bruce McCarl
University Distinguished Professor Agricultural Economics Department Texas A&M University
Jason Hales
Computational Scientist Idaho National Laboratory
Keaton Flake
Software Engineer Idaho National Laboratory
Damon Hartley
Senior Scientist and Deputy Relationship Manager to the Bioenergy Technologies Office Idaho National Laboratory
Tom Richard
Professor Emeritus of Biological Engineering Penn State University
REFRAME is funded by Schmidt Sciences and is part of its Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF), an initiative with a mission to support science, technology and engineering research focused on leveraging underused biomass as alternative feedstocks for biomanufacturing.
