Precision Agriculture

MARCH 2023 SPEAKER: Mathieu Bonneau, PhD, Researcher, French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)

Mathieu obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics in 2012 where he worked on designing an adaptive sampling method based on reinforcement learning, in order to estimate weed map at the pasture scale. He was then hired for nearly 4 years as a postdoc, at the University of Melbourne (Australia) and the University of Florida (Gainesville - USA), where he worked on management of invasive species. During these first experiences, he developed expertise on spatial modeling, optimisation and optimal management strategies. In 2016 he was hired by the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), to work on integrated management of gastro-intestinal parasites for small ruminants. One of his research is to study the link between animal behavior and parasitisms. Why do some animals get more infested than other? Is it just genetic? To be able to monitor behavior on the long term, he developed solutions based on computer vision.

APRIL 2023 SPEAKER: Amy Reibman, PhD, Elmore Professor of School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Purdue University)

Amy R. Reibman is the Elmore Professor of School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. Before that, she pursued 23 years of industrial research at AT&T Labs -- Research, inventing, designing, and analyzing systems for transmitting video between computers. Key concerns were improving video quality and measuring the impact of quality degradations. At Purdue, her research focuses on video analytics for real-world applications where inputs may have substantial quality impairments. This naturally includes video analytics for agricultural and livestock applications.

Dr. Reibman made contributions to the standardization of MPEG-2 Video and Systems in the early 1990s, and has published over 40 journal papers, 130 conference papers, and has been granted 70 US patents. She was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2022 and elected IEEE Fellow in 2005, for her contributions to video transport over networks. She also chaired the IEEE Fellow Committee in 2016-2017. In 1998, she won the IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize Paper Award. She was the Technical co-chair of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing in 2002. She was a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Signal Processing Society from 2008-2009, and was a member of the IEEE Awards Committee from 2010-2012.

MAY 2023 SPEAKER: Oleksiy Guzhva, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

An Assistant Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). A veterinarian with 20+ years of coding experience working within AI-driven agriculture and Computer Vision fields. Interested in the responsible digital transformation of agriculture, resource-efficient IoT applications and user-oriented product development.

AUGUST 2023 SPEAKER: Suresh Neethirajan, PhD, Professor at Wageningen University and Research

Suresh Neethirajan is a Europe based Canadian Professor, inventor, consultant and award-winning researcher in the field of Digital Livestock Farming. Suresh graduated recently in 2022 with a certificate in Applied Data Science from the reputed MIT, USA. He obtained both his MSc and PhD in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Manitoba upon which, completed two NSERC postdoctoral fellowships from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of the USA and the National Food Research Institute of Japan. Having worked at the Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands and the University of Guelph in Canada as an Associate Professor in the Animal Science & Bioengineering domain, Suresh brings a multitude of academic and industrial experiences for solving practical problems in the agri-food sector. His expertise includes—but is not limited to—improving animal health with Artificial Intelligence-powered farming, unlocking unparalleled performance with Big Data and Artificial Intelligence-driven insights, and harnessing the power of AI to improve livestock farming. By using Big Data Analytics and AI-powered decision support systems, he believes -we can optimize decision-making in the agri-food and animal farming industry.

SEPTEMBER 2023 SPEAKER: David Speller, Founder and CEO of OPTIfarm

From vegetable farm manager to global ISO auditor, David moved into the poultry sector when he purchased a UK broiler farm in 2004 and continues to operate a contract poultry farm management company in the UK.  

In 2018 David founded OPTIFarm. OPTIfarm is a unique artificial intelligence driven support service for poultry and swine, interpreting real time farm data against animal behavioural knowledge and human considerations to identify issues and predict the causes, thus allowing farmers to repsond faster and more accurately, reducing costs, increasing productivity and validating welfare, globally 24/7.  

David has a broad and open mind regarding the opportunities of data and digital solutions in farming and he has a passion for creating tangible value from digital solutions. 

OCTOBER 2023 SPEAKER: Jan Lassen, PhD, Project Sr. Scientist at Aarhus University

Jan Lassen is a Senior Project Manager at VikingGenetics and an Adjunct Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. Jan works mainly on generating data for two traits for genetic evaluation in dairy cattle: Methane emission and feed efficiency. For feed efficiency he has been part of a team that has developed a 3D camera system to predict daily feed intake in commercial farms. This involves using 3D image for identification, feed intake prediction and body weight. The system is currently installed in 25 herd across. At the presentation Jan will go through various algorithms, validation of the system and application of the data for genetic evaluation and daily on farm management.   

NOVEMBER 2023 SPEAKER: Ilias Kyriazakis, PhD, Professor of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast

Ilias Kyriazakis is the Professor of Animal and Veterinary Science at the Institute for Global Food Security of Queen’s University Belfast. He is a veterinarian by training who specialises in the effects of animal management on their performance, the ability to cope with challenges, such as pathogens, and their environmental impact. He has worked with a variety of animal species ranging from mice to cows, but more recently his research has focused on pigs and poultry. Since 2015 he has been using disruptive technologies to detect automatically changes in animal behaviour as means of early detection for health and welfare problems. To achieve this he collaborates closely with Computer Scientists and Electrical and electronic Engineers. Professor Kyriazakis is the recipient of several awards, including the Leroy Award by European Federation of Animal Sciences for International Excellence in Animal Science, and Fellow of national and International bodies.