24 / SEEDWORLD.COM OCTOBER 2026 techniques that could make lines homozygous in one generation, but he is still undecided whether those approaches are a good fit for popcorn. “Selfing every generation takes a lot longer, but we’re evaluat ing generations and I need those repeated measures year after year because I want a line that will produce the same popcorn, year after year, no matter what kind of weather they get,” Studer says. Over time, the team selected against weak stalks and disease before shifting its focus to flavor, texture and flake traits once it had stable, high-performing lines. Texture was especially important. “The starch can be a little like a packing peanut,” Studer explains. “It has to have the right amount of crunch and the right flake.” When Kernel Shape Predicts the Pop Flake refers to the shape of the popped kernel, with two main types: ball, which is round and sturdy for caramel corn, and but terfly, the wider movie-theater style Studer’s team was target ing. An intermediate mushroom type also exists. Undergraduates score the flakes, and the team is even linking those shapes to observable kernel features. “There are anecdotal observations that the shape of your kernel relates to how much of your hull releases off the flake, as well as the flake itself,” Studer says. Studer has tested this selection method with high school students, asking them to predict which kernels would pop best based on appearance alone. While random picks succeed about 25% of the time, some stu dents reach success rates above 60% with careful obser vation. This is where artificial intel ligence comes in. “If a high schooler can pick out traits just by looking at kernels, machine vision will be able to pick out and quantify those traits. That will really change the way we do things,” Studer says. The team is already test ing lines in the field that were selected using machine vision models, alongside human selections and random con trols, as researchers evalu ate the technology over the coming years. Moving Beyond the Research Plot To take Illini SuperPop to the next level, Studer part nered with brothers Matt and Darin Riggs of Riggs Beer Company. They began brew ing to create a unique, value- added product directly from their fifth-generation family farm. “A lot of smaller farmers have gotten out of farming because it’s hard to compete, but our ethos has always been to not be afraid to be different and try something new,” Darin Riggs says. After expanding beyond traditional field crops to grow Anthony Studer introduces students to corn genetics in the field. The popcorn project supports lessons in agriculture, genomics, computer science and plant breeding. Sarah Kaper, director of the Champaign County Farm Bureau Foundation’s Ag in the Classroom program, is helping develop popcorn-based lessons for students across Illinois.
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