Congratulations to Vicky Summerson for winning the best speaker prize in the Plant and Crop Science category at Research Week.
Presentation: The use of vis-NIR spectroscopy for the detection of smoke contamination in grapevines
The Vineyard of The Future
Climate Change Research
Extract:
Sigfredo Fuentes, a plant physiologist and agronomist at the University of Melbourne, says such tech-based innovations are just the tip of the iceberg in winemaking. He says, when it comes to irrigation management for winemakers, another promising development is thermal and multispectral infrared cameras mounted on drones.
According to Fuentes, these new drones can pick up signs on vines that indicate their water status, by taking highly detailed photos as they fly overhead.
Another novel use of drones, he says, is to assess damage caused to vineyards by smoke from bushfires and wildfires, especially in places like California and Australia.
“The same drones that we use for irrigation scheduling we can use to detect the pattern of smoke contamination within a vineyard,” he tells The CEO Magazine.
“After a bushfire, a grower can fly a drone and see which sections of the fields have been contaminated and the level of contamination. This means that at least growers can do a harvest where they avoid contaminating good grapes with spoiled grapes.”
“New tools are also assisting winemakers to pick grapes at the right time, he says. Replacing the old-fashioned method of winemakers going out into a vineyard and tasting grapes, growers can now use a handheld device that assesses “cell death” in grapes, thereby reducing risk in one of the trickiest parts of the growing process.
While traditionalists may baulk at using such tech, Fuentes says it’s time the industry caught up with the modern world.”The current assessment when the winemaker goes to the field and picks some grapes and tries them comes from the middle ages,” he adds, “It’s from when people would bring the grapes to the priests to test.”
Sigfredo Fuentes delivering a keynote talk at the Digital Agro-Food & Forestry (r)evolution Symposium in Porto, Portugal (11-12 December 2019) organised by the Centre of Research of Agro-environmental and Biological Technologies (CITAB) Talk: New and Emerging Digital Technologies for the Agriculture of the Future.
Australian Society of Plant Scientist 2019 Teaching Award for Excellence and Innovation on Teaching Plant Science at University Level.
www.linkedin.com/posts/sigfredo-fuentes-66306757_asps-on-twitter-activity-6606155981384744961-63DY
An international collaboration between The University of Melbourne, Tecnologico de Monterrey and University of British Columbia is trying to unravel the link between consumers emotions and beer consumption.
Fuentes, S., Gonzalez Viejo, C, Torrico, D.D., Escobedo-Avellaneda, Z., Hernandez-Brenes, C., Rodriguez-Velazco, Y., Villarreal-Lara, R., Mandal, R., and Singh, A.P.
Some chemical compounds found in food and beverages have been associated with the release or suppression of certain hormones responsible for triggering different emotional responses. This study aimed to assess the chemical compounds found in beer and their effect on self-reported and subconscious emotional responses from consumers. A sensory session was conducted with 61 consumers who evaluated six beer samples with different alcohol content (2.5-9.6%). The questionnaire to assess acceptability and self-reported emotions was displayed in the Bio-Sensory application and videos were recorded to measure facial expressions. Furthermore, chemical analyses were conducted to measure compounds such as hordenine, iso-alpha acids, bitterness, alcohol content, pH, and acidity, among others. Multivariate data analyses based on principal components analysis and multiple factor analysis were conducted. Results showed that components such as hordenine, alcohol, bitterness and iso-alpha acids were related to emotions such as disappointed, smirking and contempt for the subconscious emotions, and with dizzy, sick, weary, disgusted and aggressive for the self-reported responses. On the other hand, acidity, and sugars such as glucose and fructose were related to overall liking and positive emotions such as joy, relaxed, happy and love for both the self-reported and subconscious emotions. The findings from this study helped to understand the association of the self-reported and subconscious responses towards consumers acceptability of beer.
Acknowledgements:
This study belongs to the project: Is happiness from beer consumption related to alcohol or specific beer compounds? How this question can be answered with biometrics of consumer perception.
Universities involved: The University of Melbourne, Tecnologico de Monterrey and University of British Columbia.
Funding body: Universitas 21
TEDx Melbourne Australia. Presentation of Digital Vineyards: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Digital-Vineyards
Tune in to Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes’ on ABC radio where he discusses his views on digital agriculture:
Interview starts at 2:06:00
Key topics:
– Australia as a key pioneer in digital agriculture, but with the lowest adoption by growers… why?
– The role of technology in providing farmers with access to digital agriculture
– How digital agriculture benefits farmers
Associate Professor Sigfredo Fuentes has been awarded the 2019 Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) teaching award. The award recognizes excellence, innovation (i.e. original and creative methods/student activities) and/or other contributions with successful learning outcomes to teaching plant science at University level.
The Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) is an incorporated society that promotes Plant Science in Australia. It provides professional contact within our community of tertiary and vocational lecturers and education specialists; primary & secondary school teachers; and researchers in the plant sciences.
He will be giving a presentation on teaching methods, innovations or contributions in the Science Communication and Education session at ASPS 2019. The conference will be held at La Trobe, Melbourne on the 26th-29th November.
Dr Sigredo Fuentes is a fellow of the Networked Society Institute (NSI) for Digital Agriculture, Food and Wine, Coordinator of Minor (AGRI90070 – 72 – 80 - 82) Research projects and Plant Growth and Processes (AGRI20026) as well as the International Coordinator of The Vineyard of The Future Initiative.