Better Disease Risk Assessment – A Pan Canadian Smart Farm Network Collaboration

Better Disease Risk Assessment – A Pan Canadian Smart Farm Network Collaboration

The session will look at why there is a need for both CEA and traditional farming in Alberta, and will explore regional innovative research being done to help grow the industry to increase productivity

CEU Credits: 0.5

Panelists:

Christina Kaye is a Project Lead with Smart Agriculture at Olds College of Agriculture and Technology (OCCI). Her job is focused on leading, planning, executing and producing final deliverables for applied research projects. Some of the projects she enjoys the most involve collecting and analyzing agricultural equipment data, disease distribution, crop health and agronomic sensor ground truthing.
Christina’s favourite part of her job is field work, along with teaching students and seasonal employees about crop science. She enjoys the diversity of her job and how it’s always changing, and likes contributing to the overall adoption of ag technologies by discovering how they can benefit producers.
When clients come to OCCI about an applied research opportunity, Christina takes their intake forms and helps build the project proposals, charters, and protocols to ensure the projects get planned and executed for the best results. Christina enjoys working with the entire OCCI team and welcomes how everyone’s diverse backgrounds and experiences contribute to the projects by bringing forward new and creative ideas and concepts.

Adrienne Levay, Instructor & Researcher, Lakeland College: Adrienne Levay graduated with a PhD in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems from the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems in 2018. She is a two-time Canadian Institutes of Health Research Awardee and was a 4-Year Fellow at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests have included gender and food insecurity in the global south, government school nutrition policy, health ethics, ethics of technology and innovation, developing data-enabled innovations, data literacy and realist methodologies. Currently, she is an Instructor & Researcher at Lakeland College in Alberta, Canada, creating and delivering curriculum for the new Bachelor of Agriculture Technology Degree.

Blake Weiseth, Applied Research Lead, Glacier FarmMedia Discovery Farm: Blake grew up on a mixed grain and livestock farm near Shaunavon, SK. He holds a joint role of Applied Research lead at Glacier FarmMedia Discovery Farm and Research Chair at Saskatchewan Polytechnic and is currently pursuing a PhD in Soil Science from the University of Saskatchewan working under the supervision of Drs. Jeff Schoenau and Jane Elliott. He is a Professional Agrologist (PAg) with the Saskatchewan Institute of Agrologists and was recognized by the institution as the 2024 Outstanding Young Agrologist. His research focuses on evaluating agricultural management practices and emerging technologies for their ability to optimize water and nutrient use efficiency while limiting nutrient losses in runoff water.

Event Timeslots (1)

Tent 2
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Panel Discussion

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