University College Dublin (UCD), founded in 1854, is Ireland’s premier university, with over 37,000 students and a research budget in excess of €120 million per annum. The university is ranked in the top 1% of universities worldwide, and has a strong international profile in research and innovation. The research performance of the School of Biosystems and Food Engineering is ranked in the top 4 universities by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE, USA). The School’s academic staff have a major global research impact, with an annual output of > 100 peer reviewed journal papers, accounting for 50% of the citation impact of the university in the Agri-Food domain. Led by Dr Dimitrios Argyropoulos, the Digital Tech Lab within the UCD School of Biosystems Engineering is focused on the application of “smart systems” to the agri-food and bio-resource sectors. The newly established Lab is the only one in Ireland equipped with novel technologies to enable research and teaching of digital agriculture such as smart sensors, robotics, agri-food electronics, IoT and machine learning. The group has a track record in major international research projects on sustainable agri-food systems and digitisation and automation.
