Program

General Session: September 23

Featured Speakers

Christian Ramirez-Camba, PhD | Department of Animal Science, University of Minnesota
"The Adaptive Protein Concept: A Data-Driven Evolution of the Ideal Protein Concept"

The Ideal Protein Concept is largely focused on maximizing growth. But animals do more than grow. They reproduce, adapt, respond to stress, and maintain complex physiological functions. The Adaptive Protein Concept uses machine learning to identify amino acid needs beyond growth across multiple biological functions.

Sudario Roberto Silva Junior, MS | Iowa Select Farms
"Using Microbiome and Machine Learning to Improve Energy Prediction in Swine Diets"

Current swine energy equations often struggle to explain variation in high fiber diets because they do not account for the contribution of the gut microbiome. Sudario will discuss how machine learning approaches can integrate diet composition and microbiome data to better understand energy utilization in pigs. The presentation will focus on practical applications for nutrition, ingredient evaluation, and improving prediction of energy in swine diets.

Stephanie Hansen, PhD | Iowa State University
"The AI-Assisted Animal Scientist: Strategies to Use LLMs Without Letting LLMs Use You"

Dr. Hansen will discuss how Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming graduate education, technical writing, and data synthesis for the modern nutritionist, with tips to ensure you maintain ethical integrity and your voice in your AI-assisted endeavors.

View the full list of speaker bios and presentation summaries

General Session Schedule

Species Sessions: September 24

Dairy Session

Beef Session

Swine Session