Vertical farming is an agricultural approach that involves indoor, large-scale plant cultivation, at multiple levels, with controlled environmental conditions, a hydroponic nutrient solution and artificial light. This space-saving approach to growing fruit and vegetables has the potential to meet increasing fresh produce demand in dense urban areas. In recent years, several commercial entities have marketed […]

The project revolves around automation in nursery farms and greenhouses. The goal is to deliver planted pots using autonomous unmanned systems. Planted pots will be loaded/unloaded to/from plant carts using a small robot called BigTop, designed and developed at the supporting organization, AIS. Motion planning, control, and navigation algorithms will be developed through this project […]

Canola is one of the world’s most important oilseed crops and is the most profitable commodity for Canadian farmers. It has applications in production of cooking oil, bio diesel and animal feed. The value of this crop will be enhanced by optimizing methods for sorting, dehulling and further processing. Sorting the seeds will streamline seed […]

Innovative approaches that ensure food security in light of the increasing world population, increasing variety of crop pests and microbes, and accelerating climate change are urgently needed. Suncor has developed a novel plant immune aid that can effectively enhance the disease resistance of crops to enhance agricultural yields. Through this collaboration with Dr. Todd Hoare’s […]

The proposed project deals with the extrusion encapsulation of bioactive components using rice and corn protein based food matrix. It is well recognized that the performance properties of natural lake pigment encapsulated products are influenced by the structural properties of the matrix protein used for the extrusion encapsulation. The type, mixture and nature of proteins […]

This project will design an Apiary Management System to control and study environmental conditions that affect beehive health and honey production. Several efforts will be undertaken in developing this intelligent hive concept. In-hive environmental sensors will be implemented and thermal backplane will be developed to regulate the temperature within the hive. Sensors will be installed […]

Phenol formaldehyde (PF) resins are catalyzed poly-condensation products from phenol and formaldehyde. The annual global production and consumption of PF resins is over 3.0 Mt and valued more than $2 billion. However, the World Health Organization’s International Agency has classified formaldehyde to be carcinogenic to humans. Therefore, it is of great interest to produce green […]

3M Purification is a commercial leader in water purification components and systems. Currently, the company is in the strong need of developing new water filtration and purification solutions in the area of divalent cation membranes. It is proposed that this membranes will be fabricated out of graphene-based materials fabricated using technology that has been developed […]

The overall objective of the proposed initiative is to develop a novel, automated and integrated harvesting system that will identify the root causes of increased loses; increase berry picking efficiency and product quality. The increased harvesting losses of wild blueberry crop during harvesting have pushed the growers and processors within the industry to set a […]

Microalgae have potential for use in both the food and feed industries. It is already used in a number of different applications, including biofuels, flavour enhancers, colouring agents and emulsification agents, as well as sources of protein, polysaccharides, lipids and vitamins. Microalgae also contains proteins which can serve as precursor of small fragment (3-20 amino […]

Recent consumer interest in controlling and preventing chronic diseases through improved diet has promoted research on the bioactive components of agricultural products. Wheat is an important component of the human diet, providing energy, due to its high content of carbohydrate, and protein. In addition, wheat contains high levels of secondary metabolite (bioactive) compounds such as […]

Improving feed efficiency (FE) and meat quality (MQ) are Canadian swine industry priorities that will increase sustainability and competitiveness. It is difficult to improve these traits simultaneously by traditional breeding methods due to limited knowledge of genetic interactions, limitations on animals that can be measured and the high cost of measurement. High throughput genomic technology […]