CAFE & IAFE Program-at-a-Glance
Keynote Speech 1
Prof. Roberto Confalonieri
Full Professor at the University of Milan
Consumer sensors as a possible solution to increase the transferability of precision agriculture principles in operational farming contexts?
Abstract
Despite the potential advantages of precision agriculture for increasing the sustainability of agricultural systems, the adoption rate in operational farming contexts is still close to zero. The speech will propose an analysis to identify the reasons and will present examples of solutions – based on consumer sensors – that aim at building a bridge to move farmers from management strategies based on “natural sensors” (eyes, hands, nose and, sometimes, tongue…) to effective strategies based on cutting-edge technologies.
Keynote Speech 2
Prof. John P. Verboncoeur
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University
​IEEE Smart Agri-food Systems (SmartAg): Technology Applied to the Food Supply Chain
Abstract
​SmartAg (Smart Agri-food Systems) is an IEEE Future Directions initiative designed to converge multiple technologies applied to agri-food systems. Leveraging component technologies into an engineered system can generate substantial efficiencies, including attacking the 40% food waste worldwide, as well as the energy, carbon, water and other sustainability challenges to feed 9 billion people worldwide on shrinking arable land, while improving safety and quality. With about 20% of food waste occurring in the wholesale retail food sector, and another 20% wasted in consumer storage, new sensor, RFID and blockchain technologies integrated with smart stores, refrigerators, pantries, wearables and mobile devices allow for improved inventory and personalized nutrition management to improve health, safety, and efficiency outcomes. Technologies including AI, machine vision, robotics, sensors, communications, RFID, cloud compute and storage are all integrated into an Internet of Food (IoF). Connection to consumer wearables can support AI-driven mitigation of chronic health issues via real time nutrition. The goal of SmartAg is to provide a platform for researchers, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and service providers in the food sector to connect and collaborate to build the SmartAg ecosystem and realize its potential.
Bridging Research and Practice
The Questions Are in the Field. The Answers May Be in the Room.
Keynote Speech 3
Michaela Margida, PhD
Researcher & Improvement Specialist, Hoongendoorn
Bridging Research and Practice
The Questions Are in the Field. The Answers May Be in the Room.
Abstract
Climate change, geopolitical instability, and changing policies are creating questions for growers that no single company, researcher or discipline can answer alone. Yet valuable knowledge often remains disconnected from the challenges growers face every day.
Having worked across academia, science policy, and industry, Dr. Michaela Margida has seen firsthand where connections between research and practice can be lost. Scientific findings can remain behind journal paywalls, while practical questions from growers and R&D teams may never reach the researchers with the expertise to help answer them.
In this session, Michaela will invite participants to explore how industry and academia can connect more effectively. Using real, currently open questions from Hoogendoorn’s R&D department, she will engage the audience in exploring whether the expertise needed to tackle horticulture’s biggest challenges may already be in the room.
