Western Innovator: High school students work on AI decision-making tools for irrigation facilities
Published Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at 10am
Boise high school students Henry Turcotte and Marco Trotta can’t wait to help farmers irrigate more efficiently.
The 2025-26 Bishop Kelly High School senior is founding Illigant, a startup venture centered around artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Their recent work includes assisting water professionals and farmers, fieldwork at the University of Idaho’s Kimberly Research and Extension Center, and preparing a presentation at the Idaho Water Users Association’s Water Law and Resource Issues Seminar in Sun Valley June 1-2.
“Water is an issue right now for Idaho farmers,” Turcotte said. “We’re trying to make something useful.”
He and Trotta built Helios, an AI-powered decision support tool. Helios uses machine learning and crop science models to help farmers optimize irrigation timing and amount.
“Growers can sign up to track our progress, and as we get closer to launch, we’re actively seeking farmer input to make sure we’re building something that actually works for them,” Turcotte said.
expert feedback
He and Trotta recently competed in the regional-level Presidential AI Challenge after winning in Idaho and were finalists in the Hackfort Tech Challenge. The technology challenge associated with Boise’s large annual festival traditionally focuses on higher education students.
Feedback included that Irrigant’s entrepreneurial approach and technology are sound and that additional input and data will further improve the tool.
“We knew Illigant had real potential,” Trotta says.
Students connected with scientists at the Idaho Water Resources Institute and UI, as well as with Idaho groundwater occupiers and government officials. Student counselors at private schools allowed students time during school hours to participate in meetings and conduct business.
According to IBM’s website, artificial intelligence technology enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, problem-solving, decision-making, creativity and autonomy. Machine learning is a subset of AI that focuses on algorithms that can learn patterns in training data and make accurate inferences about new data. Such pattern recognition allows models to make decisions and predictions without explicit hard-coded instructions.
verification
Collecting real-time data from farmers and getting them to test the Helios software is a current focus for Irrigant leaders.
“The more accurate machine learning is, the better the irrigation recommendations will be…which means they need to be validated,” said Trotta, who was named a speaker at the IWUA event.
The goal of the UI Kimberly trip in late April was to validate the model against field data. The opportunity now is for further testing to take place in university research areas, including to see how the irrigation decisions prompted by Helios perform compared to widely used best practices.
Trotta will work with Boise-based UI hydrologists this summer to primarily optimize the software.
Helios is cloud-based and uses a model trained on local field data to predict soil moisture one to three days in advance, taking into account weather, soil type, and crop stage, according to Illigant’s website.
This tool tells farmers how much water they should water and identifies the optimal period for doing so. Root zone conditions, recent rainfall, and temperature are taken into account. Recommendations are accompanied by confidence intervals that indicate how confident the model is.
Turcotte and Trotta are gathering feedback from farmers, gauging interest and creating a waiting list.
They said that with Irrigant and its Helios products, they aim to optimize water and energy use, maintain crop yields and help farmers reduce costs. The company plans to establish a business entity after this summer and provide the system during the 2027 planting season.
“We have a real passion for water,” Trotta says.
western innovators
Venture: irrigation agent
Products under development: Helios is a decision support tool for irrigators. Cloud-based tools utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning technology
operator: Business leader Henry Turcotte and chief technology officer Marco Trotta are both 2025-2026 seniors at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise.
