As the global population grows, food demand continues to rise. Robotics and artificial intelligence inevitably have to take part in land cultivation to allow farmers to be more efficient and productive when managing crops. Our scholars Emina, Milan, and Momcilo together with Eddie Custovic, chair of our Foundation witnessed the design & manufacture process of these systems at Photon Systems Instruments in Brno, Czech Republic. It is a world-class company in manufacturing instrumentation for advanced measurement and imaging of optical signals in plants and algae.

Our visit was like a trip to the futuristic wonderland of food production and cultivation. The company's work focuses on advanced imaging and instrumentation systems like hyperspectral imaging, devices for chlorophyll fluorescence measurement to examine how different conditions affect plant growth. Their products are being used both for agriculture production and scientific research.

This visit produced a new insight into an important problem - producing enough food for humankind. Food production is facing many challenges like growing population, decreasing amount of arable land and climate change. Combining engineering with natural sciences is the only way we can overcome this problem. This type of combination is present in automated plant phenotyping systems - which are the most fascinating. Plant phenotyping refers to a quantitative description of the plant’s anatomical, ontogenetical, physiological and biochemical properties. This research is used for accurate measurement of diverse traits of an increasingly large number of plants to help plants to adapt to the resource-limiting environment and low-input agriculture. Image-based phenotyping is the part where technology comes in. We even tasted the results - by eating a freshly picked watermelon in the last week of September.

Futures Crew at the PSI Research Center with their watermelon

Alongside getting to know the company and its products, we were involved in designing a prototype of an autonomous vehicle system for the observance of plant cultivation. We learned how to develop a conceptual solution to a real-life problem. It has an outcome in our further involvement in this project.

Exploring charming Czech villages and field crops, engineering agriculture production and getting to know Czech culture was a life-worth experience. Another bonus was visiting Brno - one of the most beautiful cities in the Czech Republic.

Our last night in Brno was reserved for a networking event. We organised a meetup event with fellow Bosnians & Herzegovinians living and working in Brno.

Coming home with a new point of view to the important problems humankind is facing nowadays is beneficial enough from this experience, but getting the opportunity to see how world-class companies solve them and to be a part of it is like a jackpot for a young engineer.

Futures Expedition: Czech Republic, Advanced Food Production & Meetup