On Tuesday, 24 September 2024, the National Competence Centre SLING partners hosted a webinar titled “Revolutionising Agriculture with HPC and AI: Real-World Applications.”
The event targeted companies, engineers, technology experts, researchers, and farmers in the agricultural sector, offering them the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and explore the transformative potential of High-Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in agriculture.
The integration of these advanced technologies is becoming essential in agriculture, driving innovation, improving crop yields, enhancing disease control, optimizing resource management, and promoting sustainable farming practices.
The webinar was opened by Tina Črnigoj Marc, project manager at Arctur, who introduced the EUROCC 2 project and outlined the role of NCC SLING. The event featured four expert presentations showcasing real-world applications of HPC and AI in agriculture.
Stevan Čakić, a researcher at DigitalSmart and assistant at the University of Donja Gorica, kicked off the session by demonstrating how IoT systems, edge computing, supercomputing, and AI are used to monitor the vital signs and conditions of chickens on farms. This approach helps maintain animal health while optimizing growth.
Next, Tomaž Bokan, an international technical expert from ITC MS, shared insights into three development projects that apply AI tools in the agrifood sector. He illustrated how AI-powered innovations are revolutionizing precision farming, food processing, and supply chain optimization, leading to greater efficiency and sustainability.
Federico Battini, a data specialist from IFAB, discussed the creation of a weather classifier that selects the most accurate weather prediction model for each grid cell and forecast time step by utilizing two numerical weather models. This method significantly improves forecast accuracy with minimal effort.
The final speaker, Prof. Dr. Janez Perš from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, presented a case study on the use of HPC and AI for precision agriculture in monitoring tomato growth. He highlighted how these technologies enable close-range monitoring of tomato crops to optimize production and addressed practical challenges such as image segmentation and multispectral imaging, especially in detailed field data collection.
Watch the recording of the webinar:
