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Students attend Croptec 2023

The Croptec Show is an annual event which focuses on bringing together both businesses and individuals from across the agricultural industry to discuss current challenges and display the cutting edge in agricultural technology and innovation. Each year our students are invited to attend the event, and this year it was a group of our 5th Cohort of students who attended Croptec 2023 in Warwickshire.

On the first day, the students spent the morning visiting a the various stands, and speaking to exhibiters about their products/services and also the student’s own interests and project ideas. Two of the more notable stands the students saw were the University of Warwick and Spectronic Camspec:

The University of Warwick were showing their wheeled robot base with an articulated arm featuring a depth-sensor and a visible light camera; they are looking to use these to detect insects on plant leaves. 
Spectronic Camspec are quantifying texture and physical properties of crops and food-stuffs. The demonstration mimicked how a person bites down on peas and used blades, both acting downwards and upwards, and a closed container to simulate a mouth. The machine used had many attachments for different food items such as sausages, biscuits, carrots, and so on. Any food item can have its texture-based qualities assessed which can be useful for quantifying the texture of, for example, a gluten-free cake.

Three of the students, Benjamin Horner, Catherine Merchant, and Robert Stevenson, then spent the afternoon assisting the University of Lincoln on their stand, representing the AgriFoRwArdS CDT and discussing their work with the agricultural technology community.

On the second day, more students joined the event, and they were able to have a great discussion with representatives of UKRI, who fund the AgriFoRwArdS CDT, about their project ideas.

And finally, a particular highlight for the students was meeting Kaleb Cooper from Clarkson’s Farm!

Thank you to Benjamin, Catherine and Robert for representing the AgriFoRwArdS CDT at the event, and for sharing their experiences.

You can see more of what went on at the event in the below video.

Published inEvents

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