teaching
Workshop:Current Challenges, Trends and Experiences for Enhancing Agriculture Value Chain Decisions under Uncertainty
On August 28th, 2019, an International Workshop took place in the University of Liverpool Management School, involving participant from the H2020 RUC-APS project (www.ruc-aps.eu), which consider a unique University Of Liverpool Cross Faculty involvement such as: Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences. In addition to this, Industry partners from UK, coming from the Royal Agricultural Society of England with their Innovation for Agriculture representative and the Lucana Agriculture Agency from Italy also got involved in this event. Ms. Rachel Brockley, RUC-APS project Administrator and Dr. Jorge Hernandez, RUC-APS project Coordinator and Principal Investigator, organized this event.
In this occasion, the themes and subjects covered were as follows. In the first place, Dr. Jorge Hernandez, from the Management School and H2020 RUC-APS project coordinator, presented current overall progress for this project, within a special emphasis on the current IMPACT related work on which he is working on, plus other IMPACT cases that are being support by RUC-APS. After this, Prof. Martin Mortimer, from the Integrative Biology Institute, linked to the University of Liverpool Centre of Excellence of Sustainable Food Systemsand the RUC-APS WP9 leader, addressed the current developments and challenges to combine sustainable and intensive approaches in agriculture, specially once dealing with complex uncertainties in the environment. Following this presentation, Prof. Andy Morse, from the Geography and Planning department, presented current advances on Climate change analysis, and how the links between international research grant can support next agriculture generation issues yet to be discovered. Next, was the turn for two PhD students from the Risk Institute, Francis Baumont and Dominc Calleja, who presented their current work on Decision Support Tools for enhancing urban agritech in order to mitigate key risk and uncertainties in agriculture, which is linked to the RUC-APS WP7 led by the Risk Institute. Then, Dr. Arturo Caponero and Mr. Emanuele Scalcione, linked to the RUC-APS WP6, and who are coming from the Lucana Agriculture Agency from Italy, addressed the most key and up-to-date challenges and work done, in practice. Hence, the key aspect from their talk was about dealing with current and new pest and diseases in agriculture, which links to one of the key international IMPACT cases led by the RUC-APS consortium in making more efficient the current Integrated Pest Management processes. Finally, Ms. Deborah Crossan, coming from the Innovation for agriculture UK, presented the current British challenges on soil management and how current uncertainties in climate and regulations is generating the need for developing more impactful research in the field.
This international event considered the participation of senior academics and researchers, as well as PhD students who are, currently, seeing in RUC-APS an opportunity to extend their research work, but also their networking possibilities for future research developments.
Video records
Session 1-2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlySGGfE3vU
Session 2-2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQCKxP2yxw4
How to use strategies of design thinking to foster innovation in a RISE project
In the context of her secondment to FEDACOVA, Dr. Cecilia Challiol conducted a teaching session on the use design thinking strategies to support innovation in a non traditional. In the teaching session, some general aspect of Design Thinking has been described and then how to be used in a not traditional way to obtain the best benefits of it. Design thinking can be described as a discipline that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity” according to Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO). The Design Thinking Framework has been presented with real examples of the four phases (Discover, Define, Develop and Prototype). These examples have been oriented to innovation. Then, some examples of in-situ co-design mobile applications have been described to introduce another way to use Design Thinking. This generates a starting point to discuss and analyze the way to use this discipline when are located distributed teams.
Application of ICT in the food supply chain
In te context of his secondment to UNLP, Dr. Akshit Singh from the University of Liverpool, conducted a teaching session.
Abstract: The use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) have been predominantly found in manufacturing and service industries. However, in the last decade, the scope and scale of their application in food industries has significantly risen. Some of the most commonly deployed ICT in agri-food industries are: RFID, Cloud Computing Technology, IOT, Blockchain, etc. Given the nature of complex and global food supply chains, these ICT solutions virtually brings all the components of supply chains viz. farmers, processors, wholesalers, retailers and consumers on a single platform thereby enhancing transparency, traceability and efficiency in the flow of product, information and finance across the food supply chain (from farm to fork). Traditionally, the ICT being expensive in nature was only limited to the wealthy and innovative stakeholders in food chain (retailers, processors, logistics and other components in downstream of food chain). Nevertheless, lately the upstream of food chains (farmers, producers) have overlooked their traditional practices to adopt ICT to raise their produce due to multitude of factors- decline in price of ICT implementation, advent of mobile web applications, pressure from government, consumers and other stakeholders to reduce carbon footprint, address bullwhip effect etc. Therefore, farmers realised that they can no longer work in isolation and ICT played active role in integrating them with downstream of supply chain.
The presentation used is available for download as pdf
Mathematical programming approaches for procurement in water irrigation systems
As part of his secondment to ALSIA, Manuel Díaz from UPV conducted a teaching session on “Mathematical programming approaches for procurement in water irrigation systems”.
The development tools used to improve water management acquire special relevance, particularly when the area has a high water resource deficit. Currently, this problem is present in many countries as a result of the increase in population, the decrease in water resources and the increase in energy prices. Mathematical programming is an analytical procedure to determine the optimum allocation of scarce resources. These allocation problems can be presented in very different ways. In this sense, mathematical programming techniques are employed in a large number of problems, such as production planning, supplier selection, transport and distribution problems, forest planning or scheduling flights, among others. The goal of this teaching session was to introduce the audience in the use of mathematical programming for addressing the replenishment process in a local irrigation network with the aim to decide what volume is procured (source, quantity and timetable) as well as what volume is stored while minimizing the involved total costs. A review of different mathematical programming approaches for addressing this type of problems was presented, and finally, a case study from a real water irrigation network was used to demonstrate the benefits of mathematical programming as a decision making tool.
Group decision making in agriculture: Mathematical programming model + Group Decision Support System approach
As part of her secondment to ALSIA, Ana Esteso from UPV conducted a teaching session. At the session, an introduction to the group decision making in agriculture was presented. For that, an approach comprised by a multi-objective mathematical programming model and a group decision support system was employed to centrally plan the planting and harvest of crops. The main complexity of this planning problem is that prices of products are highly dependent on demand-supply balance. So, decisions made by one farmer will impact on the margin to be obtained by the rest of farmers. This could be solved by centrally planning the planting and harvest of products, but new problems could arise due to the inequalities between farmers and consequently, their unwillingness to collaborate. A multi-objective mathematical programming model to centrally plan the planting and harvest of three types of tomatoes is proposed. Three objectives related to three dimensions of sustainability are optimized by using the ε-constraint method. Ten non-dominated optimal solutions are obtained and included in the group decision support system named GRUS as possible planning alternatives. Involved actors use the group decision support system to vote, in function of their preferences, the alternatives that better fit their needs. In this way, farmers collaboratively decide the solution to be implemented in farms. The involvement of farmers in decision-making process provokes the willingness to implement chosen decisions in real life. Results obtained by applying this group decision making approach to the Argentinean tomato case study are presented. Possible future lines for the improvement of such approach are commented and discussed with the audience.
The presentation is available for download here
Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Design and Management
In the context of his secondment to Riviera Produce, Raúl Poler (from UPV) conducted a teaching session on “Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Design and Management”. The session took place at the University of Plymouth.
A Supply Chain is a complex system of entities, people, resources and information involved in creating a product, purchasing materials and components, processing them, assembly the final product and delivering it, from various steps of suppliers to the final customer. To achieve a good performance in a Supply Chain there are lot of decisions which should be optimized, at different levels (strategic, tactical and operational) and different steps (purchase, production, delivery, transport, etc.). Quantitative Models applied to Supply Chain problems support decision-makers to achieve a good performance by selecting the optimum decisions among a myriad of alternatives. This training session aimed to provide the participants with a deep knowledge on creating mathematical modelling problems, related with Supply Chain, using an algebraic modelling language and a computer tool to solve it. The participants learner to create computable models from mathematical models, and test them using real or fictitious/realistic data. Models and data were be treated separately, creating the abstract model and storing the data in data sets, using a computer tool to obtain the model instance to send to the solver.
Management Production and Inventories: From EOQ/EPQ to ELSP and its extension with shelf life and transitive demand items
As part of her secondment to Riviera Produce, Pilar Vidal from UPV conducted a teaching session on “Management Production and Inventories: From EOQ/EPQ to ELSP and its extension with shelf life and transitive demand items“. At this session, the economic order quantity (EOQ) as one of the simplest and used models to control production and inventory was presented. Their extension to manufacturing systems, that is, economic production quantity (EPQ) was shown. How to implement basic production and inventory management policies using these models was detailed. The most basic inventory-management model is defined by the employed policy –reorder point (s,Q) periodic review (T,S), model (s,S) to name just a few- and its control parameters. It can be said that any of these models answer two basic questions: ‘when’ and ‘how much’ to order/manufacture. The ‘when’ question is usually addressed by either (or simultaneously) setting a stock level at which to reorder or stablishing specific moments of time when to reorder. The ‘how much’ question tends to be answered by either considering a stock level that serves as a reference to fill, or a fixed quantity that optimizes the affected costs. After that, Economic Lot Scheduling Problem (ELSP) was presented which occurs when EPQ deals with more than one item. The solution to the ELSP involves two critical decisions. On the one hand, there is the lot sizing problem. On the other hand, there is the scheduling decision, i.e. decide when items are produced so that the schedule is feasible. Some heuristics to implement ELSP approach were described. After that the particular case of a firm which package fresh vegetables was presented, describing the special characteristics of this framework regarding the management of the production and inventories.
Production Scheduling in a vegetable packing machine with uncertainty in the quality of the raw material
As part of his secondment to Riviera Produce, Pedro Gómez from UPV conducted a teaching session on “Production Scheduling in a vegetable packing machine with uncertainty in the quality of the raw material”. In the session, a description and several models of the packaging process of 3 product families (broccoli, cauliflower and mixed tray) were presented in a production system similar to that of 3 unrelated parallel machines. Several alternative models were considered in order to introduce the uncertainty in the quality of the raw material and to see how it affects the satisfied demand. After the presentation of the case, the resolution of a simple model was addressed by means of heuristic algorithms.
Introduction to ERP systems
As part of a secondment to ALSIA, Andrés Boza García and Llanos Cuenca Gonzalez from UPV conducted a teaching session on ERP systems.
The session covered the following topics:
- Definition and Characteristics of ERP Systems
- Reason to Acquire Them
- Impact on Organisation
- Advantages and Disadvantages of ERP Systems
The material used in this session can be downloaded in pdf form from this link .
UT1C teaches UNLP-Agro staff about GDSS
As part of his secondment to UNLP (Argentina) Amir Sakka from UT1C (France) conducted a teaching session on Group Decision Support Systems. The session was aimed at academics, researchers, and students of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences and Forestry of the National University of La Plata. It is part of a series of activities that are central to work packages 10 and 12. The aim of these activities is to pilot UTC1 technology (the Grus system) in agriculture scenarios.
The material used in this session can be downloaded in pdf form from this link.
A video presenting an example session of the Grus system in agriculture was used for demonstration purposes. The demonstrator video is available on-line:
This teaching session will be followed by a hands on experiment to be conducted in the following days.
Mathematical models applied to irrigation networks
In July 19, 2018 Associate Professor Vicente S. Fuertes-Miquel, from Departamento de Ingeniería Hidráulica y Medio Ambiente (DIHMA) of Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) conducted a teaching sessions about “Mathematical models applied to irrigation networks” as a part of his secondment at ALSIA (Italy).
The objective of this teaching session was to present mathematical models as powerful tools to design and optimization of irrigation networks. The Mediterranean area of Spain and southern Italy have a similar problem: dry weather and lack of water. In this context, it has a lot of interest the optimization of irrigation systems (to save water) and the optimization of pumping in irrigation systems (to save water and energy). Different metaheuristic techniques (Genetic Algorithms, Particle Swarm Optimization, Harmony Search, etc.) can be applied to design and optimization of irrigation networks. Recently, the energy recovering in irrigation systems is increasing the general interest. Water irrigation systems are required to provide adequate pressure levels in any sort of network. Quite frequently, this requirement is achieved by using pressure reducing valves (PRVs). Nevertheless, the possibility of using hydraulic machines to recover energy instead of PRVs could reduce the energy footprint of the whole system. New methodologies are proposed to help water managers quantify the potential energy recovering of an irrigation water network with adequate conditions of topographies distribution. Improving the energy efficiency of water systems by hydraulic energy recovery is becoming an inevitable trend for energy conservation, emissions reduction, and the increase of profit margins as well as for environmental requirements. Nowadays, the use of micro hydropower in irrigation systems is being analysed to improve the overall energy efficiency.
The presentation used during the teaching sessions is available for download here
Teaching on GDSS at UPV and AINIA
In June 20th, and June 22nd, Prof. Pascale Zarate, from Université Toulouse 1 Capitole conducted two teaching sessions. These sessions were specially aimed at researchers and academics from UPV and from AINIA respectively. The topic of these sessions was Group Decision Support Systems and how these system can improve group efficiency for decision making problems.
This activity is part of the teaching agenda of Prof. Zarate’s secondment to UPV that is currently taking place.
The presentation used during the teaching sessions is available for download here
Strategic KPI models
As part of her secondment to BDI (France) María José Verdecho from UPV (Spain) conducted a teaching session on Strategic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Models based on Performance Measurement Systems. The session was presented to Cécile Guyon (European Project Manager) and Guillaume Briend (Agretic Program Manager) at BDI (Bretagne Development Innovation). This Teaching session is linked to Juan José Alfaro’s teaching session on Process KPIs models as both models are to be integrated into a global model for solid and coherent performance management within organisations and supply chains. The Teaching session also dealt with KPIs models extension to supply chains performance management. Also, both Teaching sessions promotes collaboration between WP8 and WP15.
The aim of the presentation is to provide an overview on strategic KPIs models so that BDI could learnt how KPIs models can be applied to BDI for including the regional government politics and customer’s results in an integrated BDI KPI`s model, mainly oriented to the Agretic Program. The Agretic program promotes the emergence of projects by bringing digital companies closer to agriculture and the agri-food industry by offering digital solutions to agriculture and agri-food companies. Initiated by the Brittany Region in 2011, the Agretic program is managed by Bretagne Développement Innovation in collaboration with the Chambers of Agriculture of Brittany and the Valorial competitiveness cluster.
The presentation used during the teaching sessions is available for download here
Process KPIs models
As part of her secondment to BDI (France) Juan José Alfaro from UPV (Spain) conducted a teaching session on Process KPIs Models on Performance Measurement Systems. The session was presented to Cécile Guyon (European Project Manager) and Guillaume Briend (Agretic Program Manager) at BDI (Bretagne Development Innovation). This Teaching session is linked to Maria Jose Verdecho’s teaching session on Strategic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Models as both models are to be integrated into a global model for solid and coherent performance management within organisations and supply chains. The Teaching session also dealt with KPIs models extension to supply chains performance management. Also, both Teaching sessions promotes collaboration between WP8 and WP15.
The aim of the presentation is to provide knowledge on Process KPIs Models so that BDI could learnt how KPIs models (strategic and process level) can be applied to BDI for including the regional government politics and customer’s results in an integrated BDI KPI`s model, mainly oriented to the Agretic Program. Since both levels complement each other they must be addressed in a global way. The Agretic program promotes the emergence of projects by bringing digital companies closer to agriculture and the agri-food industry by offering digital solutions to agriculture and agri-food companies. Initiated by the Brittany Region in 2011, the Agretic program is managed by Bretagne Développement Innovation in collaboration with the Chambers of Agriculture of Brittany and the Valorial competitiveness cluster.
Description of the model of Scenarios and LEL
July 2nd, 2018
As part of his secondment to the University of Lorraine, professor Leandro Antonelli from the National University of La Plata, held a teaching section on The Model of Scenarios and LEL, and its applicability to RUC-APS.
Scenarios describe interactions between users and a future system. It is also used to understand the context of the application. Leite defines a scenario with the following attributes: (i) a title that identifies the scenario; (ii) a goal or aim to be reached through the execution of the episodes; (iii) a context that sets the starting point to reach the goal; (iv) the resources, relevant physical objects or information that must be available, (v) the actors, agents that perform the actions, and (vi) the set of episodes.
The Language Extended Lexicon (LEL) is a glossary used to capture and describe the domain´s language.
Terms (also called symbols) are classified into four types: Subject, Object, Verb, and State. Subjects represent an active element that performs actions. Objects are passive elements on which subjects perform actions. A verb is used to represent the actions. Finally, States represent situations in which subjects and objects can be located.
A symbol is described by two attributes: (i) the notion and (ii) the behavioral responses. Notion describes the symbol denotation and explains its literal meaning. While Behavioral responses describe its connotation, that is, the effects and consequences of the relationship between the defined symbol and others symbols defined in the LEL.
Learning about some aspects of plant breeding: Artichoke
On June 18th, in the context of her secondment to CNRISPA (Italy), Constanza Jana (INIA, Chile) conducted a teaching session on the various aspects of plant breeding, with particular focus on Artichoke. Plant breading requires in-depth knowledge of the target plant, and a clear definition of improvement goals. Plant breeding techniques are key in nowadays plant species domestication. In the present, only 30 of the 700 domesticated plant species are in use.
The session was targeted at students of the Liceo Scientifico “S. Simone” – Liceo Classico “D. Morea” – Conversano (BA).
Sustainable vegetables production systems for the South of Chile in Climate Change context
On June 12th, Sigrid Vargas Schuldes from INIA Chile , held a teaching session at CNR-ISPA, aimed at CNR-ISPA researchers.
The topic of the session was climate change as an opportunity for sustainable horticultural production in the regions of Los Ríos y Los Lagos (South of Chile). Climate changes enables productive diversification, and new business opportunities specially for small farmers. It therefore calls for new research and development models with a focus on global and local adaptation.
The session presentation can be downloaded here
Summary of 10 years of research on artichoke in the semi-arid zone of Chile
On June 12th Constanza Jana Ayala from INIA (Chile) conducted a teaching session in the context of her secondment to CNR-ISPA (Italy). The session started with an overview of the activities of INIA, with special focus in the work conducted at the Intihuasi Research Regional Center . After a brief introduction of all participants, the session moved on to discuss artichoke production in Chile and Italy. Topics of the session included evolution of production in the region, production methods, breeding methods and main crop health challenges and approaches.
Presentations used during the session can be downloaded from the following links
Strategies to recover and work on Chilean local tomatoes
On June 5th, 2018, during the secondment to FEDACOVA (Spain), Dr. Juan Pablo MARTINEZ form INIA-La Cruz, Chile, conducted a RUC-APS teaching session for the dissemination activities of the H2020 RUC-APS project. He travelled to Valencia, Spain. The meeting discussed the role of the Agricultural Research Institute (INIA) in Chile. INIA generates and transfers knowledge and strategic technologies on a national scale, and also as provides with innovation methods to improves competitiveness in the agri-food sector. This session presented the methodologies that INIA applies to recover the local tomatoes with good organoleptic characteristics (colour, taste, and aroma). It also showed the variety of strategies to study the effect of the biocontrol on productivity and quality, to investigate the effect of rootstock on productivity and fruit quality and to use new local rootstock from local tomato varieties and wild tomato species. In addition to this, FEDACOVA’s audience was able to provide feedback regarding their experience in innovation for several domains such as productivity and fruit quality at harvest and postharvest.
RUC-APS thanks Sergio Barona, and Juanjo Rico for their hospitality and insightful feedback during Juan Pablo’s secondments and for supporting this RUC-APS teaching session.
Use of conceptual models to visualize the value chain
On May 16, Jorge Hernandez led a teaching session on the use of conceptual models to visualize the value chain, specially targeted at researchers of INIA (Chile). This topic interesting for those who seek to develop projects at the level of the value chain and, therefore, use a standard methodology for the characterization of these. In this case, the SCOR methodology is used to conceptualize indicators and GRAI to visualize the flow of information and decisions.
Presentation is available for download here
Mathematical Models in Agri-food Supply Chains
In April 10,11 and 20th 2018 Associate Prof. Mareva Alemany Díaz, from Centro de Investigación en Gestión e Ingeniería de Producción (CIGIP) of Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) conducted several teaching sessions about “Mathematical Models in Agri-food Supply Chains” as a part of her secondment at ALSIA (Italy).
The objective of these teaching sessions was to present mathematical models as powerful tools to be used by farmers during their decision-making process at different decisional levels. These decision levels include the strategic level (facility location, network design, technology selection), tactical level (crop selection, harvest planning, labor planing) and operational level (storage, distribution, order management). First, the general structure of mathematical models was described and then, three applications of Mathematical Models to agricultural supply chains were presented to: 1) define the schedule of the grape harvest operations, 2) promise customer order proposals in a fruit supply chain and 3) forecast demand or prices by a software tool based on mathematical models. As a conclusion it can be stated that mathematical models can be applied to wide range of problems in the sector. This is supported by the fact that during last years it is observed an increasing development of mathematical models in agrifood supply chains with special emphasis put on the uncertainty modelling.
The presentation used during the teaching sessions is available for download here
Mathematical Programming basics
In January 29th, 2018 Associate Prof. David Perez, from Centro de Investigación en Gestión e Ingeniería de Producción (CIGIP) from Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) conducted one teaching session as part of his teaching agenda in the secondment that took place in Bretagne Développement Innovation (BDI).
This session was specially aimed at staff from BDI. The topic was “Introduction to Mathematical Programming”. It was shown the advantages of using some of the technics of Operations Research, an more particularly, Mathematical Programming, in Suppy Chain Management. Then one basic example was approached. The final goal was to get started in the field of Mathematical programming and get new insights to cope with the specific characteristics of agri-food Supply Chains and how decisions are taken.
Regarding SCM, two basic types of decisions were pointed out:
- SC Design: They are related to long Term Decisions (strategical), for example the location and sizing of the different nodes, connection possibilities among the nodes and sizing of them…
- SC Operations Planning; They are related to Medium/Short Term Decisions (tactical and operational), for example the planning of physical activities (Production, Storage and Transport) and non-physical activities (Purchase and Sales), distinguishing between those taken tactically and thefore capacity-based decisions and those taken operationally, more focused on their execution.
Centralized and Decentralized-based decisions among the different partners of a SC as well as different degrees collaboration schemes were also briefly approached.
Regarding, Operations Research tools, some of them were identified such as: inventory management theory, graphs theory, simulation, and finally mathematical programming. This latest one was chosen as the most appropiate one to cope with SC decision-making and to characterize the different decisions along Agrifood SC: planting, harvesting, processing, distributing…
The presentation used during the teaching sessions is available for download here
The use of glossaries in early phases of software development
September 13th, 2018
As part of his secondment to University of Toulouse, professor Leandro Antonelli from the National University of La Plata, offered a teaching session on the use of glossaries in early phases of software development.
Requirements engineering is a critical stage in software development. It is one of the first stages, and its main product, the definition of the requirements, it is used to plan the software project. Thus, any mistake in requirements has a negative impact on time, cost, and client satisfaction. Therefore, it is necessary to produce a specification as complete and correct as possible, to reduce further consequences. The talk presents scenarios and a structured glossary to write it (Language Extended Lexicon).
RUC-APS 