Between the 10th and 12th of November, the 13th edition of the Brazilian Agroinformatics Congress (SBIAgro) will take place, a biennial event, promoted by the Brazilian Agroinformatics Association (SBIAgro), under the organization of the Bagé Campus of the Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa), Embrapa Pecuária Sul, Embrapa Digital Agriculture (Campinas, SP) and University of São Paulo (USP). The novelty of this edition will be the completely virtual format.
SBIAgro is the main scientific event in the area of information technology applied to agriculture in Brazil and aims to promote the sharing of research results, exchange of ideas about work in progress and innovation in the sector. In this edition, the event addresses the theme of Digital Innovation and Biomes: integrating agricultural production with environmental conservation.
SBIAgro will feature lectures by researchers and professionals working in the thematic areas offered; technical sessions for presenting and discussing research and innovation results; panels to debate current topics in digital agriculture; and competitions for scientific initiation work and theses and dissertations, which highlight work developed in the academic field by undergraduate and postgraduate students.
According to the organization, SBIAgro is a meeting point for people interested in the development of agricultural systems, promoting the generation of ideas, solutions and new partnerships that can promote the economic performance of the area through technologies that consider the preservation of biomes, human and social aspects, in addition to animal welfare.
“Since 1996, the biennial SBIAgro congress has been the forum that brings together most of the growing agroinformatics community, revamped and evolved as digital agriculture. In it we present, discuss and disseminate trends and solutions for the sector, not just in research and development, as we seek to promote integration between RD&I, bringing companies and micro-enterprises, aiming at the issue of partnerships for open innovation. This year, we will have the launch of the GO FAIR Network manifesto for agriculture, lectures and panels with themes on artificial intelligence (AI), current solutions to AI problems in agriculture, government policies and initiatives for digital agriculture, as well as challenges and perspectives on the topic", said Maria Fernanda Moura, president of the Brazilian Agroinformatics Association and researcher at Embrapa Digital Agriculture.
Registration can be made until the start of the event. The full schedule, registration schedule and submission information are available on the event website.
The event has the support of SBC, Sebrae, USP's Institute of Advanced Studies and Celeiro AgroHub, as well as sponsorship from Ripple Impact and the IBM/Fapesp/USP Center for Artificial Intelligence.
Digital agriculture opportunities
Unipampa and Embrapa Pecuária Sul develop, in partnership, the Postgraduate Program in Applied Computing (PPGCAP), on the University's Bagé campus. According to the professor of the Computer Engineering course at Unipampa, Bagé campus, and president of the 13th SBIAgro, Ana Paula Ludtke Ferreira, the area of digital agriculture still has great potential to be explored. “There’s the whole world to be done in this area. The number of opportunities when we look at processes in the agricultural sector is very large. We have been working on topics such as planning, control, animal improvement, algorithms for activities that producers currently carry out by eye, etc. From a scientific and technological point of view, there is a lot to be done. Each of the program’s master’s theses could become a company”, highlighted Ana Paula.
For the general head of Embrapa Pecuária Sul, Fernando Cardoso, the event is yet another way to reinforce this cooperation and present to society some of the work carried out in the program. “The partnership between Unipampa and Embrapa, materialized through the master's degree in Applied Computing, is an excellent combination of complementary capabilities. At Unipampa we have a group of teachers with knowledge in the area of Computing and at Embrapa highly specialized technicians in agricultural production. What we are doing is combining these capabilities, to bring Information Technology increasingly towards the sustainable development of agribusiness,” he said.
Discover the Master's in Applied Computing
The Postgraduate Program in Applied Computing (PPGCAP) is a partnership between the Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa) and Embrapa Pecuária Sul for the development of research and products, technological innovation and training of people in the area of Production Technologies Agriculture. The PPGCAP was approved by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes) in 2016 and began operating in March 2017.
The Program currently has 11 permanent professors, five from Unipampa – all with PhDs in the area of Computing – and six from Embrapa Pecuária Sul – PhD researchers in the areas of Agronomy, Zootechnics and Veterinary Medicine. PPGCAP aims to apply computational techniques to solve agricultural production problems. With the main focus on technologies for rural production, the lines of research are based on: Precision Agriculture and Computational Modeling of the Soil-Plant-Animal System.
The work developed in the master's program generally addresses the development of hardware and software products to support decision-making by rural producers; control of agricultural equipment; sensor networks for data collection; data science; optimization of production processes; and image recognition, among others. Studies range from searching for the best mating scheme to maximize genetic and economic indicators to early diagnosis of diseases in cattle through imaging. The program offers ten places per year. To find out more, visit program page.
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