Technology & Precision Farming
Hackathon gives ‘best brains’ 48 hours to feed the world
• Special event brings together scientists • Goal to boost agricultural productivity • Innovation promises much for farming
T
actics used by wartime code-breakers could help accelerate innovation within the food and farming sec- tors, say scientists.
Due to take place next month,
a 48-hour “hackathon” will bring together people with knowledge and expertise in the fields of tech- nology and applied science – with the joint aim of solving criti- cal issues facing the agri-food in- dustry.
A similar tactic was used dur- ing the dark days of World War Two. Faced with losing the war, the Allies needed drastic meas- ures to turn likely defeat into a decisive victory. So they brought together talented people from dif- ferent disciplines and asked them to come up with a solution. The code-breakers of Bletch-
ley Park were arguably the orig- inators of the hackathon, says Belinda Clarke, director of Agri- Tech East. Using a mixture of engineering, linguistics and al- gorithms, they cracked the Enig- ma code used by Germany – and the rest is history.
Similar approach To accelerate innovation in the agri-food industry, a similar ap-
proach is being adopted by Agri- Tech East and not-for-profit busi- ness advisers Allia, who will host the hackathon delivered by Cam- bridge Applied Research at the Allia Future Business Centre on 7-8 April. Agri-Tech East is an independ- ent organisation which works to improve agricultural competi- tiveness and sustainability. It does so by bringing together farm- ers and growers with scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs to create a global innovation hub in agri-tech.
If all goes to plan, Dr Clarke anticipates that a number of innovative concepts will have emerged from the hackathon by the end of the two days with the potential to be developed further into business ideas that benefit farmers as well as consumers. The agri-food industry faces a raft of considerable challeng-
“
There is money available to fund the development of new approaches
A similar approach to problem solving was highlighted in The Imitation Game film, which told the story of Bletchley Park.
Agri-Tech challenges include:
Weed and pest control Chemicals pest control are being increasingly withdrawn on environmental grounds. The challenge is to develop alternative ways of protecting crops cost- effectively – through barrier protection, laser hoes, robotic weeders... or something else.
Balancing performance with animal welfare Feed makes up 65% of poultry production costs. Under optimal conditions, birds will convert the feed to meat, but if they are too cold the energy will be used to generate heat. The challenge is how to monitor the birds and manage conditions to improve performance.
The hackathon will bring together experts in technology and applied science [image courtesy of Cambridge Applied Research]
60 ANGLIA FARMER • MARCH 2018
Making food systems consumer-centric Many food crops are highly perishable and labour. Cutting food miles by bringing production closer to the centres of population can reduce waste and deliver fresher food. The challenge is how to integrate food production within cities, making use of undercover and vertical spaces.
es, she says. They include low pro- ductivity rates, increasing envi- ronmental pressures and growing demand for low-priced nutritious food. All have the potential to be transformed by digital technol- ogies.
New thinking
“There is a significant political, economic and social imperative to address these issues quickly, and there is money available to fund the development of new ap- proaches and disruptive technol- ogies, explains Dr Clarke. “A hackathon promises to stimulate new thinking in a short time frame. We have not tried one before and so by bring- ing together people that are pas- sionate about solving problems, we hope to generate some inno- vative responses.” Paul Hughes, director of en- terprise support at Allia, has run several hackathons. The format is successful and has produced some innovative and feasible solutions – and has the potential to gener- ate big ideas that benefit agricul- ture, he says. “Our hackathons create an environment to stimulate dis- cussion around key impact chal- lenges. They facilitate creative thinking, and create opportuni- ties to utilise technology to collab- orate and innovate, with an aim to improve people’s lives.” For full hackathon details, vis- it
www.sudochallenge.com.
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