23. December 2021

Conference on digital technologies for sustainable crop production Conference on digital technologies for sustainable crop production

Bundled expertise at DIGICROP 2022: Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob invites participation

How can digital technologies be used for more sustainable crop production? Researchers from a wide range of disciplines are working on these questions at the Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob at the University of Bonn. At the Cluster's flagship conference, DIGICROP, experts pool their knowledge, bringing together distinguished speakers from around the world. Given the great success of DIGICROP 2020 at the end of last year, preparations are underway for the next edition of the conference, which will be held digitally from March 28 to 30, 2022. The Cluster of Excellence PhenoRob is receiving support from the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (USA). Scientists are invited to submit presentations in the form of videos by January 5.

A robot in the field: digital technologies help on the way to sustainable crop production.
A robot in the field: digital technologies help on the way to sustainable crop production. © Volker Lannert / Uni Bonn
Download all images in original size The impression in connection with the service is free, while the image specified author is mentioned.

“We are very happy to host this conference together with one of our strategic partners in the U.S., because it means that we can reach an even bigger audience than last time,” says Nora Berning, Chief Administrative Officer of the Cluster.

Another innovation concerns the mixture of scientific talks and industry talks. Both AIFS and PhenoRob have a network of industry partners who will be given a platform to present their research and business ideas related to the topic of the conference, more specifically to an international and interdisciplinary audience working at the intersection of engineering, robotics, computer sciences, crop sciences, agricultural sciences, phenotyping, and agricultural economics.

Among the speakers of the conference are Dr. Ranveer Chandra (Microsoft Research), Prof. Dr. Robert Finger (ETH Zürich), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gall (University of Bonn), Prof. Dr. Anne-Katrin Mahlein (Institute of Sugarbeet Research), Prof. Dr. James Schnable (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Prof. Dr. Gail Taylor (University of California, Davis), Prof. Dr. Harry Vereecken (Forschungszentrum Jülich) and Prof. Dr. Stavros Vougioukas (University of California, Davis).

With this line-up, the hosts are convinced to attract a large number of participants. DIGICROP2020 already attracted more than 950 registered participants from all over the world. “We expect the number of participants to be even higher this time,” says Nora Berning, “given that the number of talks which will be held will almost be twice the amount of what we had last time.”

So far, the DIGICROP2020 talks that have been published on the YouTube channel of the Cluster have overall generated more than 30,000 impressions. The next edition will also be a 100% virtual event, consisting of pre-recorded video talks and live Q&A sessions. Participants can join the discussions live via ZOOM on March 28-30. The whole event is free of charge for all participants and presenters.

Information for participants and presenters can be found at: http://www.digicrop.de

DIGICROP 2022 is organized by the DFG-funded Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob – Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production” at the University of Bonn and the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS). PhenoRob is one of six Clusters of Excellence at the University of Bonn and is carried out in collaboration with the Forschungszentrum Jülich. It is the only Cluster of Excellence in Germany on the topic of agriculture. Clusters of Excellence are part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. PhenoRob is led by two spokespersons, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heiner Kuhlmann and Prof. Dr. Cyrill Stachniss. More information can be found on the official website of the Cluster of Excellence: www.phenorob.de

PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn
Dr. Nora Berning, MBA, Chief Administrative Officer
Phone: +49 228 73 60819
Email: nberning@phenorob.de

Wird geladen