Loading

AgriFoRwArdS Newsletter Issue 7 - January 2022 Edition

Happy New Year to you all! We would like to wish you a joyful and successful 2022.

Welcome to the seventh issue of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT Newsletter, scroll down to find out what has been happening within AgriFoRwArdS, and the wider Agri-Food Robotics community, recently.

Applications are now being taken to join Cohort 4 (entry in October 2022), visit the AgriFoRwArdS website for more information.

Second Crop of PhD Projects Begin

Last October AgriFoRwArdS celebrated the progression of their 2nd Cohort of students as they began their PhD studies, with all three partner Universities welcoming students through their doors.

Having all completed their MSc study during one of the toughest years, Cohort 2 students have now been matched with Industry Partners, and are working alongside their Supervisory Teams on the first stages of their PhD research (you can read more about their projects on the student's individual profile pages).

Amie Owen has teamed up with Campden BRI, under the primary supervision of Prof Elizabeth Sklar. Amie is studying the opportunities for applying intelligent automation to help maintain hygiene within food production settings within her project titled 'Intelligent Automation for Hygiene Maintenance in Food Production Settings'. From a health and safety perspective this work is important if robotic cleaners and intelligent task planning can reduce humans' exposure to cleaning products.

Bradley Hurst is working with Dr Petra Bosilj to tackle the technological challenges faced by potato planters. Bradley will be working with Jersey Farmers Union on a project titled 'Active Robot Perception for Automated Potato Planting' which will investigate new solutions for the currently labour-intensive process of potato planting. Bradley will be working alongside fellow Cohort 2 student, Elijah, on their linked projects.

David (Grey) Churchill has collaborated with Syngenta for their PhD study. Alongside their Primary Supervisor Prof Simon Parsons, Grey will work to further develop methods for intelligent spraying of herbicides. The project, titled 'Machine learning-based vision for "green-on-green" spraying' will aim to solve the "green-on-green" weed detection problem.

Elijah Almanzor is working alongside Jersey Farmers Union and Dr Fumiya Iida to develop low-cost robotic arms with suitable grasping end-effectors and machine intelligence which can be utilised in planting potatoes. The project 'Automation and Robotization of the Planting of the 'Jersey Royal' Potatoes' will be completed alongside fellow Cohort 2 student Bradley, who is researching a linked project.

Haihui Yan will be studying her PhD, titled '3D Printing Soft Robotic Grippers for Automated Strawberry Harvesting', in collaboration with Dyson Farming. Being supervised by Dr Sebastian Pattinson, Haihui will design a novel 3D printed robotic gripper targeted for strawberry harvesting to tackle the main challenges faced by robotic strawberry harvesting - brushing, abrasion and mechanical damage.

Haris Matsantonis will be applying Geometric Algebra to machine vision within the agri-food robotics sector. The project will be supervised by Prof Joan Lasenby and it titled 'Design and implementation of a machine vision system to promote precision agriculture innovation using novel Geometric Algebra techniques'.

Jack Foster is working with Dyson Farming, under the supervision of Dr Alexandra Brintrup at the University of Cambridge. Jack's project, titled 'Collaborative Lifelong Learning for Robust Site-Specific Crop Management', will work to tackle the impracticalities faced by manually analysing the needs of individual crops on farms.

Will Rohde is collaborating with G's Growers to model and control the growth of crops in order to enable growers to maximise harvest. The outcome of the project, titled 'Autonomous monitoring and control of crop growth as a feedback system' and supervised by Dr Fulvio Forni, will be the first direct application of feedback control to plant growth within an agricultural field.

Harry Rogers will be 'Closing the Loop on Precision Spraying' in his PhD research. Supervised by Dr Tahmina Zebin, Harry will be working with Syngenta to improve existing platforms for autonomous targeting of crops, weeds, pests and accurate dispensing of fluid.

Mazvydas Gudelis's project, titled 'Analysing Videos of Fish in the Field' is being completed in collaboration with Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) and under the supervision of Dr Michal Mackiewicz. The project will analyse videos of fish captured in outdoor and uncontrolled environments, such as on small fishing board, in order to monitor catch quotas.

Ni Wang will be working with Antobot for her PhD project titled 'Seeing Spectral Signatures'. Supervised by Prof Graham Finlayson, the project will develop algorithms for mapping the RGB signal recorded by conventional cameras to corresponding spectral signatures that are useful for diagnosis of plant disease.

Applications are now being taken to join Cohort 4, due to enrol in October 2022, for more information visit our website here.

Students Attend Responsible Research and Innovation Workshop

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) acknowledges that not only do science and technology have the potential to transform our future, but that they are entangled socially, ethically and politically. This can result in a complex network of responsibilities in research and technology innovations that do not always align or lead to desired outcomes. Because of this, it is important for the scientific system to understand societal needs and to respond to questions that citizens – as the ultimate funders of research – would like answers to. As science and technology can have uncertain, unpredictable and far-reaching consequences for society, researchers have a responsibility to ensure that the research they are conducting, is done so with consideration for society. By considering both the expected and unexpected impacts of research they are better prepared to mitigate any negative impacts.

An extreme, but very possible example of the way research can be misused, misinterpreted and misapplied to have negative impact on society is shown in this video highlighting the potential deadly uses for drone technology.

RRI is an initiative that has been shaped by public research funders who understand the important role they play with regards to the societal consequences of the work they support. In response to this, the EPSRC AgriFoRwArdS CDT have committed to embedding the concept of RRI to ensure that it’s students, academics and industrial partners provide innovative solutions to important societal challenges in an ethical and legally responsible way, with the safety of society and the environment as a priority.

In November 2021, the EPSRC AgriFoRwArds CDT welcomed the Observatory for Responsible Research and Innovation (ORBIT) to the University of Lincoln to deliver their Foundations in RRI course to the AgriFoRwArdS CDTs third Cohort of students. ORBIT are an EPSRC funded project dedicated to promoting and applying RRI practices, and specialise in providing workshops and courses for postgraduate students and academics.

The training included understanding why RRI is important from multiple perspectives (e.g. researchers, funding bodies, industry, society), who has agency (the ability to influence how scientific outputs are used, and thus to effect control as to their ultimate impact on society), the importance of ensuring and promoting societal acceptability of both the processes of doing research and its outcomes and products (of particular relevance to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs), and how researchers can use the AREA (Anticipate, Reflect, Engage, Act) Framework, developed specifically for EPSRC, as a way of conceptualising and implementing RRI. ORBIT also introduced the four Ps (Process, Product, Purpose, People) and demonstrated through active participation from the audience that mapping the AREA principles against the four P components creates the space to think about how RRI can be made relevant to science and technology.

Upcoming Events and Activities

There are some interesting and impactful events upcoming for the AgriFoRwArdS community in the first quarter of 2022.

AgriFoRwArdS Seminar Series

Following the festive break, the AgriFoRwArdS Seminar Series continues this quarter, with the following dates;

  • 21st January 2022 - Philip Tovey, DEFRA - Applied foresight for UK agriculture
  • 18th February 2022 - Mark Ryan, Wageningen Economic Research - Ethical and Societal Considerations for the Development and Use of Agricultural Robots

To ensure you don't miss out on these, and future talks, get yourself on the distribution list by emailing agriforwards.cdt@lincoln.ac.uk.

You can also access previous Seminar Series talks in our archive here, or sign up to the AgriFoRwArdS YouTube channel here.

Implementing Robotics into your Business

AgriFoRwArdS students have been invited to take part in training given by CDT Industry Partner, the Manufacturing Technology Centre. This training ‘Implementing Robotics into your Business’ will follow the entrepreneurial and executive training pathways and will give students an insight into integrating their research into future business ventures, as well as how to liaise with businesses and articulate and communicate with industry.

As part of the training students will visit MTC for a face-to-face workshop taking them through the entire process of implementing automation within business. This visit will take place on 27th January 2022 and includes a tour of the impressive MTC Coventry facilities.

Quarterly PhD Progress Meetings

This January all AgriFoRwArdS students are meeting in Cambridge to attend the first in-person PhD research progress meeting. We will hear from Cohort 1, who are in the second year of their PhD, and Cohort 2, who will be updating on the very first stages of their PhD research. Cohort 3 MSc students will have the opportunity to learn about the research ongoing within the CDT and support their peers by asking questions and drilling deeper into their fellow students’ research. All students will then experience a tour of the facilities at Cambridge.

Leadership and Management Training (ILM)

Last academic year a number of CDT students attended leadership and management training facilitated by our colleagued at the National Centre for Food Manufacutring.

The course is designed to develop students into effective and confident leaders, secure better relationships and communication in teams, and provide them with the tools to begin to develop their own skills and abilities.

The training will be available again to students this academic year, and is due to take place in February 2022, with exact dates to be confirmed.

Students and academics can visit their respective website pages to find out more about the events within the AgriFoRwArdS calendar.

Students are getting involved

Students are continuing to get actively involved in the governance of the AgriFoRwArdS CDT, with opportunities to sit on the following Panels and Boards;

  • Advisory Board
  • Student Panel
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Panel

The students are also involved in the AgriFoRwArdS Student Blog, which can be viewed here, with Cohort 3 student Garry Clawson taking a lead on blog content. Please follow this link, and enter your email address, to keep up to date with future

University of Lincoln Holiday Hackathon

The EPSRC AgriFoRwArdS CDT teamed up with others from The University of Lincoln, including, Lincoln Agri-Robotics and the EPSRC Internet of Food Things to hold a Holiday Hackathon Challenge between 10 December 2021 – 10 January 2022.

The hackathon brought together students from all over the UK, and further afield, to work on machine learning challenges to define the Best Poinsettia.

Bridge Farm Group, the leading UK producer of ornamental plants, flowers and herbs allowed us to visit their state-of-the-art facility in Spalding where they are growing over 1 million poinsettias to collect the images and data required to run this event.

Poinsettias growing at Bridge Farm Group

Hackathon participants were given access to our virtual 'poinsettia nursery' which combined images of Bridge Farm Groups' poinsettias with images submitted by the public throughout December.

Participants were asked to use state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning (ML) methodologies to develop methods for autonomous labelling of these images. They then used the data supplied in our 'poinsettia nursery' to train and test their models to accurately determine the Best Poinsettia.

Hackathon participants worked on 3 different challenges;

  • Find the height of the plant (height above the pot)
  • Find the colours (balance of red and green)
  • Find the bract clusters

Winners of the Hackathon Challenge categories, who will be announced during the closing ceremony on Friday 14th January, will each receive a gift voucher.

For more information regarding the event, please visit the Holiday Hackathon webpage.

Thank you to all participants and organisers for a fantastic event.

CROPTEC 2021

Croptec is an annual event bringing together farmers, growers, researchers and advisors to share knowledge and resources in order to develop resilient farming practices.

The University of Lincoln was one of the exhibitors and our CDT students were invited to attend the event, which took place on the 24th and 25th November 2021. It was a great opportunity to network, find out about the current challenges within the sector, and see the latest in agricultural technology. Cohort 2 student Bradley Hurst, and Cohort 3 student James Bennett both attended the event where a wide range of technology was exhibited, including spray nozzles and technologies, seeding implements, chemicals, data collection, crop breeding, mapping and agronomy.

James spoke to some inspiring exhibitors on the day. “Yara and their N-sensor for real-time variable rate application of Nitrogen; Omnia who offer precision agronomy services using a variety of data collection and analysis methods; Sencrop providing on-farm weather stations and associated insights; and Fendt, a manufacturer I’m a particular fan of!”

Bradley’s highlights included;

Chemical Company Yara presented sensor solutions for the strategic spraying of crops, whilst agricultural machinery manufacturer Graford presented a rotating disc hoe which makes use of machine vision and mechanical methods to agitate the soil and remove weeds around structured crop rows eliminating the need for spraying chemicals at all. The solutions serve as just two examples of the industries move towards targeted and precision agriculture
James attended a panel discussion focussed on regenerative agriculture and was left considering the direction and future impacts of agri-robotics. James noted; “the idea that machines should do less, and nature do more, might at first seem threatening to the agri-robotics sector, however, there is emphasis on using the right processes not just the right products to fix problems. If our robots uphold nature’s natural processes, hopefully there is a great opportunity for agri-robotics in the arable industry.”

COP26

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, from 31 October to 13 November 2021. The COP26 summit brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Staff and students, from AgriFoRwArdS and the Lincoln Institute of Agrifood Technology (LIAT), attended COP26 and exhibited at the public-facing ‘Green Zone’ exhibition alongside numerous industry leaders at the forefront of climate science.

Left to right: Dr Amir Ghalamzan Esfahani, Prof Simon Pearson, Prof Elizabeth Sklar and Willow Mandil

Amir Ghalamzan Esfahani (Associate Professor in Robotics), Soran Parsa (Research Fellow) and Willow Mandil (AgriFoRwArdS PhD student) represented the University of Lincoln. They communicated with attendees regarding EPSRC funded research being done within the AgriFoRwArdS CDT, and showcased some of the research being conducted at the University of Lincoln.

The team exhibited ‘Robofruit’, one of many state-of-the-art agri-tech projects, which uses AI and novel picking technology to harvest ripe fruit (as seen in this video). This research has long-term environmental benefits including reduced food waste by better utilising crops It will also help to address labour shortages in the UK, driving the route to larger scaled use of robotics and AI in agriculture.

One of our 1st cohort students, Willow Mandil, took the trip to Glasgow and said:

Visiting Cop26 was an informative experience. We demonstrated how robotics and AI might help transform the agrifood system towards a more sustainable future. From school children to Members of Parliament, many were interested in the potential for sustainable agriculture through automation. Engaging in conversation with different members of our society was eye opening, I learnt as much from them as they did from me. We had a lot of talks with vertical farmers, who were interested in how automated harvesting can tessellate with their systems, I think this could be a fascinating direction for automated harvesting and AI applications in the future.

With an estimated 37% of the world’s greenhouse gasses being produced by the agri-food industry, the COP26 exhibition showcased various field activities tackling this issue – including agri-forestry, robotic harvesting and crop care as well as packaging, digitalization and the employment of artificial intelligence. The UK Government selected the University of Lincoln to share with COP26 its cutting-edge robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

The University of Lincoln has one of Europe’s largest academic research centres for agri-robotics. Research carried out by LIAT, and the AgriFoRwArdS CDT, aims to drive industry sustainability by addressing labour shortages, the need for global food production and to reduce the environmental impact of the farming sector.

Dr Amir Ghalamzan-Esfahani, Associate Professor in Robotics at the University of Lincoln, who showcased Robofruit, said:

We are demonstrating to the world how robotics and automation are shaping the future of UK and international farming and food production. The University of Lincoln is at the forefront of the UK’s agri-tech and agri-food developments, with our research and teaching supporting innovation and developing workforce skills alongside partners across our food and farming sectors. Together, we aim for a net zero emissions across the industry.

For more information on the research being done within AgriFoRwArdS and LIAT, please visit the respective websites.

Prof Simon Parsons

Simon Parsons is the Primary Supervisor for AgriFoRwArdS student, Grey Churchill. Together they are collaborating with Syngenta on a project – Machine learning-based vision for ‘green-on-green’ spraying.

Simon is a Professor of Machine Learning and Head of the School of Computer Science at the University of Lincoln. He received his PhD from University of London in 1993, and held positions at Queen Mary and Westfield College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, City University of New York, University of Liverpool and King's College London before joining Lincoln. Throughput his career, Simon's research interests have centred on the design and analysis of autonomous systems, in particular with respect to how teams of autonomous systems can decide what to do in complex environments.

Simon moved to University of Lincoln because he is passionate about the potential of AI to solve problems in agriculture, both increasing productivity and improving sustainability. He is working on projects that: assure the safety of agricultural robots that work with humans; improve the explanations that robots can give to humans that they interact with; optimize the food production supply chain to reduce food waste; use data from human pickers to improve robot harvesting; and reduce the use of herbicides when spraying weeds.

Dr Amir Ghalamzan Esfahani

Amir is the Primary Supervisor for AgriFoRwArdS student, Willow Mandil. Together they are collaborating with Berry Gardens on an investigation into harvesting soft fruit clusters.

Amir completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in Iran, and his Second Level Specialisation (2nd M.Sc.) in automatic control Engineering and PhD in Robot Learning, in Italy. So many changes in his training are due to his evolving interest in physics, mathematics and machine learning making him a generalist with deep knowledge in a few domains. He was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham before joining the University of Lincoln as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science. In 2020, he joined Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology as part of the Research England Funded Centre of Excellence in Agri-robotics. He leads selective harvesting research theme that is one of the three core research themes at Lincoln Agri Robotic (LAR). Amir's group members are working on both fundamental and applied research in robotic manipulation. He is the Principal Investigator on several projects funded by Cancer Research UK, EPSRC, UKRA, ISCF, and Innovate UK. He leads a variety of projects including breast cancer examination robots, mobile manipulation, hazardous waste sort and segregation, development of selective harvesting robots and theoretical Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. Amir is keen to make a difference through fundamental and applied research by developing new robotic technologies. His team exhibited their selective harvesting robot at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. Amir enjoys literature, theology, and philosophy. He also likes poems, folk music, movies and contemporary painting.

Dr Petra Bosilj

Petra completed her BSc and MSc degrees in Computer Science at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, Croatia. She received her PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of South Brittany, France, working at IRISA Vannes and INRIA/IRISA Rennes labs on using hierarchical image representations for the retrieval of remote sensing and Earth observation images. Her PhD was awarded with "European Honours" for the collaborative international work she conducted at that time, and specifically for carrying out a part of her studies through an internship at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. During her engagement as a postdoctoral researcher within L-CAS at the University of Lincoln, she has applied her expertise to designing vision systems for agricultural robotics and precision agriculture. She has continued this work in her current Senior Lecturer role as part of Lincoln Agri-Robotics (LAR) and Lincoln Institute for Agri-Technology (LIAT).

These highly applied and practical domains highlight the motivation for her current research direction. Her research revolves around improving visual scene interpretation and understanding while reducing the reliance on annotated data typically required to achieve state-of-the-art performance of machine vision approaches, or in other words, on improving the learning from incomplete or imperfect annotations and information. Therefore her research interests include topics and techniques such as domain adaptation and generalisation, transfer learning under large domain shift, and few-shot and single-shot learning. She is particularly keen on exploring ways of introducing a hierarchical structure, naturally present in real-world environments, into computer vision models used to interpret images of those environments.

Within the AgriFoRwArdS CDT, Petra is now supervising her first student Bradley Hurst. This is one side of a two-student project in partnership with Jersey Farmers Union which aims to design a cheap and robust robotic solution for planting Jersey Royal Potatoes, where the vision system designed at the University of Lincoln will combine with the manipulation solution designed at Cambridge.

Petra likes reading a good book in the evening. She also enjoys growing chilli pepper plants, both for their stunning visual variety and the taste

Meet Campden BRI

Campden BRI have joined the AgriFoRwArdS CDT as Industry Sponsor working with Cohort 2 student Amie Owen and PhD Supervisor Prof Elizabeth Sklar. Amie, Elizabeth and Craig Leadley from Campden BRI will be working on a project titled ‘Intelligent Automation for Hygiene Maintenance in Food Production Settings’.

Below, Campden BRI introduce themselves and outline their activities.

THE INNOVATION, RESEARCH, AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE FOR THE FOOD AND DRINKS INDUSTRY

Here at Campden BRI we believe in adding value through collaboration and shared knowledge so that the food and drink industry can thrive and progress. We pride ourselves on being an established community of scientists and professionals, as we have nurtured our expertise for over 100 years. Our heritage has held us in good stead as we have built expertise and knowledge for others to benefit from.

From our scenic Gloucestershire base, we provide technical support to the food and drink allied industries worldwide. We have 2,400 member companies in 75 countries from all parts of the food chain. We provide services to companies all along the supply chain, with unique benefits for companies that become members of Campden BRI. Our members include many of the world’s biggest brands. Our clients view us as an extension of their in-house technical team and many attend our interest groups and training sessions.

Our activities are built on an extensive programme of industrially relevant research and innovation (R&I) steered by industry. We are very well connected to third party expertise:

  • Universities
  • Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs)
  • Professional bodies
  • Trade associations
  • Editorial boards
  • Government departments
  • Government agencies
  • Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
  • Committee
  • Standards Organisations
  • Funding bodies

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE

The practical application of technical excellence lies at the heart of all that we do - practical scientific, technical, regulatory, and information support to the food and drink supply chain. We work closely with industry to ensure the absolute relevance of all our activities - from analysis and testing, process validation, and safety assurance to product innovation, consumer studies and training, events, and publications. We can support our members by seeking solutions to the challenges that arise, from changes in consumer needs to the introduction of new regulations. Our support extends through the whole food chain from farm to fork, and now, with the introduction of cultured food, potentially from lab to pan. This support not only revolves around food safety but can also include aspects of staff safety, so that processes, and production can keep running.

OUR FUTURE WITH YOU

With us you can build a career, work with top experts in the field, and add your own fresh perspective. You can be part of a multi-disciplinary team, specialising in your area of passion, and pushing your own boundaries as you apply your knowledge to providing solutions, or keeping the food and drinks industry running. We welcome food scientists, learning and development specialists, regulatory experts, and early career professionals.

To find out more about Campden BRI, and how you can collaborate together, please email agriforwards.cdt@lincoln.ac.uk who will pass you onto the relevant person.

The University of East Anglia – Using apples to reduce food waste

As part of efforts to reduce food waste and improve efficiency, Dr Michal Mackiewicz, UEA AgriFoRwArdS CDT Supervisor, worked with Outfield Technology to develop a colour imaging pipeline to assess the colour of apples in an orchard before harvest.

WATCH the video and learn more about the project sponsored by EIRA.

University of Lincoln Showcases Transformative Agricultural Technology

The Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology (LIAT), at the University of Lincoln, UK, in conjunction with the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), hosted an FPC Future conference in November on Robotics and Automation in horticulture.

Jo Churchill MP, Minister for Agri-Innovation and Climate Adaptation attended the event and was impressed by the University’s transformative innovation in agriculture.

The packed schedule included eight conference sessions covering pre and post farm robotics and automation, data driven technologies, plastics and packaging, supply chain waste, carbon supply chains, vertical farming and sustainability.

Attendees saw how the world’s largest known robotic farm, LIAT’s ‘Robot Highways’ project, is shaping the future of UK and international farming and food production. The research carried out here aims to ensure industry sustainability by addressing labour shortages, the need for global food production and reduce the environmental impact of the farming sector.

Tours of the University of Lincoln’s Riseholme Campus provided a fantastic opportunity for visitors to see these technological developments - including the robotic harvesting of strawberries, a state-of-the-art refrigeration unit and various other facilities supporting projects in artificial intelligence, robotics and engineering.

The ongoing work involves collaborators such as SAGA Robotics and Berry Gardens Growers Ltd and has successfully secured funding from UK Research and Innovation.

Jo Churchill MP, Minister for Agri-Innovation and Climate Adaptation said: “It was brilliant to get a glimpse of the future and the very important work the University of Lincoln is doing in this area by supporting and enhancing the future of food and agriculture productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.”

The tour also extended to the University’s research into 5G enabled agriculture. The Minister learnt about a project being funded by Ceres which is developing a 5G pipeline to unlock the application of AI on UK farms. This step forward will allow vast quantities of data, with high-precision location information to move rapidly between devices. It will enable growers to deploy AI-driven smart agriculture technologies to increase productivity and reduce costs overall, facilitating the next generation of UK agriculture.

Prof Simon Pearson, Director of the Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology, said:

Lincoln is at the forefront of the UK’s agri-tech and agri-food developments, with our research and teaching supporting innovation and developing workforce skills alongside partners across the food and farming sectors. This event was a fantastic opportunity to see how robotics and automation are shaping the future of UK and international farming and food production. An FPC Careers event ran alongside FPC Futures. Young people had an opportunity to sample the exciting modern sector as attendees found out about the ample career opportunities within the agriculture from the industry’s best businesses and employers.

University of East Anglia Celebrate New State of the Art Facilities

This autumn an exciting new facility opened on the University of East Anglia campus – Productivity East. To mark the occasion an innovative opening ceremony was devised, using 3 robots from the facility to conduct the official ribbon cutting.

Productivity East is a new centre for engineering, technology and management focused on improving productivity and addressing current and future manufacturing global challenges, including those in the agri-food sector. The facility sees students, academics and businesses working together to find innovative ways to support the region’s manufacturing and technology sectors. The £7.4m centre supports businesses to discover practical solutions and help them to create innovations which solve real-world problems now and in the future. Given the size and scope of the agri-food and agri-tech sectors within the region, it’s of particular interest.

Facilities available include a CAD studio, robotics laboratory alongside the latest technology in 3D printers and CNC lathes and milling machines. The facilities and equipment are available to regional businesses for testing and prototyping. In addition, a range of support services are on offer. A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme is available to address skills gaps alongside offering updates on key themes and concepts from expert academics and industry leaders. Productivity East also collaborate with partners and industry to deliver an innovative event series.

To find out more about the facility email productivity.east@uea.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter: @ProductivityEast or LinkedIn: @ProductivityEast.

If you have any comments, information or news you wish to share with the AgriFoRwArdS community, please do get in touch - We'd love to hear from you.

The AgriFoRwArdS CDT Delivery Team - agriforwards.cdt@lincoln.ac.uk

Visit us on the web at www.agriforwards-cdt.ac.uk and don’t forget to subscribe to the AgriFoRwArdS CDT YouTube channel here.