Upcoming and Recent Educational Opportunities From GLASE
October 13, 2023 Greenhouse growers, manufacturers, researchers, and efficiency professionals from across North America are attending the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium’s annual Summit this month to explore pathways to greenhouse resilience and profitability. The two-day event will take place in Leamington, Ontario, on Oct. 25-26. The first day features a keynote address, industry speakers, and a winery tour. On the following day, the GLASE Industry Advisory Board will meet and attend members-only greenhouse tours at Horteca and Allegro Acres.
“We are delighted to hold our first event in Canada to cross-pollinate greenhouse expertise across borders,” says Gretchen Schimelpfenig, Executive Director of GLASE. “The 2023 GLASE Summit theme of greenhouse resilience reflects the growing need for nimble solutions to complex energy problems across the controlled environment agriculture industry.”
The program for October 25 includes:
- Welcome & Keynote Address: Dr. Bruce Bugbee (Utah State University)
- GLASE Research & Programs: Gretchen Schimelpfenig (GLASE) and GLASE researchers
- State of the Leamington Greenhouse Industry: Jim DiMenna (Red Sun Farms)
- Harrow Research Center: Fadi Al-Daoud (Agri-Food Canada)
- Energy Prices and What to Expect for CEA: Evelyn Lundhild and Jason Kwok (IESO)
- Winery Tour + Tasting
- Networking Reception
GLASE is also hosting monthly webinars. The most recent webinar focused on the Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center (CEA-IC), a joint project between the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences (SPES) at Virginia Tech and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR). Approximately eight faculty, staff, and graduate students are currently involved in a variety of research, teaching, Extension, and training projects.
One of the focus areas of the CEA-IC is the use of optics in controlled environment research and applications. One project is being conducted in collaboration with Canon Virginia, Inc. (CVI) where the Innovation Center team and CVI are working together to monitor plant health using CVI imaging technology to detect nutrient deficiency and disease symptoms. The team is capturing induced symptom development resulting from biotic and abiotic factors in model crops. The resulting images are then provided to team members at Canon and used to train an AI program to recognize the symptoms of a specific nutrient deficiency symptom or disease symptom. This information is then used to provide insight into disease progression and early detection to assist growers in monitoring crop health.
Another project has been on the development, testing, and utilization of a Spatially and Mechanically Accurate Robotic Table (SMART), which is used to image plant growth and health over time in response to applied variables. The SMART platform features a highly accurate computer numerical control (CNC) 3-axis gantry system that is fitted with imaging equipment and integrated into a plant growth system. Experiments utilizing the table yielded over 2,000 images per plant. Image analysis is carried out through ImageJ and python in order to extract plant growth data, such as pixel count, from each individual image.
Check out the webinar below.
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