ACADEMIA
Remote Learning
in Education
Accelerating agri-innovation to address climate change challenges with KPU. 🌱
In June 2021, Farmer’s Hive ran a pilot programme with Kwantlen Polytechnic University to collect & analyze environmental data in the field. The purpose of this is to help predict common diseases affecting our food security such as, the development of late blight or potato blight in order for farmers to react in real-time & mitigate the damage to crops.
Well exciting news!! In June 2022, “The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded the Institute for Sustainable Horticulture at KPU $440,000 over two years to conduct the research into accelerating agricultural innovation to address climate change challenges. The funding, which is spread evenly across two years, allows up to seven industry partners to participate each year, as well as three KPU faculty researchers, several technicians and 12 student research assistants.” Farmer’s Hive in-kind contribution over the next two years is to provide KPU with the ability to collect real-time environmental data in a number of different locations. Our team will use wireless IoT sensors to stream data directly to our cloud based platform. “Technologies such as the laser and the Internet of Things applied to agriculture will provide producers with new tools to de-risk the farming enterprise as climate change increases those risks.” More to follow, so stay tuned.
We deliver a plug and play solution connecting environmental data such as soil moisture, soil temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, air temperature, and various other sensor information directly to the cloud.
Multiple users can access the cloud through the Farmer’s Hive platform. This means students and professors can successfully work together. Using real-time data to stream to the platform to share metrics for project analysis & predictions. Exposure to data in this form creates new ideas in learning more about plant life. While helping create an ideal environment, to produce ideal crop yields.
Schools and students connected remotely
Enabling academic projects to continue in real-time with no physical location needed.
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CASE STUDY
Project: Sunflower
In one university project, students are researching the sunflower in order to provide the best possible environment to prosper & produce the optimum amount of sunflower oil. They plant the sunflower seeds & use Farmer’s Hive to monitor the environmental data in real-time as it grows. The historical data is stored for project analysis and predictions to improve conditions. They use the tool to make changes in order to provide an ideal environment for the sunflower while creating a template for future yields. Students can use the Farmer’s Hive API integration for Java and various other platforms . This means real-time information can be streamed directly online to student projects for a complete report.
CASE STUDY
Project: Thermal Resistance
Another college project example is to find a practical method for calculating the total thermal resistance of a greenhouse. Algorithms are acquired to assess heat gain from sunlight radiation and existing thermal storage capacity. A fuel converter application used to estimate costs and emissions related to various greenhouse heating systems. The outcomes of this study will help the school integrate energy data into their existing microclimate assessment package and provide people with a complete range of parameters of their growing facilities, with focus on energy information for year-round greenhouse operation. In the variable climate of Canada, heat regulation is an important component of indoor farming.
As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens food supply chains, there have been already concerns raised in relation to widespread shortages and price increases. Northern BC communities are feeling a bigger impact of the current crises. The research addresses the cost-benefit aspects of year-round indoor food production and food security for the benefit of many local businesses and the communities they serve.
