Seminar: Plant Electronics for Biosensing and Communication in Precision Agriculture

Dr. Lee Bar-On (university of Tel-Aviv), will give a talk monday 26th February 2024 at 2.00pm in room A301 of the Pole API building in Illkirch (Telecom Physique Strasbourg).

Title : Plant Electronics for Biosensing and Communication in Precision Agriculture

Abstract: Food security and the need to increase agricultural yields are one of the most important and challenging topics of this century. Many large projects focus on the combination of new science and technology to impact agricultural methods, to improve the availability and quality of produce. This research suggests implementing the concepts of an “Internet of Things” in the plant and agricultural world. Here, data will be acquired and transferred via the plant medium. Implementation of this concept relies on the adaptation of network and sensor technologies. The novel approach offered here, advocates that the plant will serve as the sensor interface. This means that changes in the plant well-being and its response will be collected and serve as a monitor in the network. Direct plant sensing technologies, such as suggested here, are not prevalent in agriculture. The research suggests the development and deployment of new sensing technologies for direct plant monitoring, using known electronic methodologies. One way to promote this approach, is to improve the understanding of electrical properties within the plant using electrical methods. The research includes a hypothesis for signal conduction through the plant medium, which can be theoretically modeled. The results suggest that this approach could be included if the plant is used as the actual sensor. Changes in the plant’s internal activity indicate changes in the environment and its needs. Hereby, this can allow the detection of water stress, varied daylight conditions, and possibly in the future, the detection of pathogenic attacks.

Biography: Lee received her B.Sc. in Computer Engineering – Optoelectronics and Microelectronics, and M.Sc. in Applied Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, in 2014. She completed her doctorate at the School of Electrical Engineering, Department of Physical Electronics at the Tel-Aviv University. She is also a researcher at the Synthetic Biology Institute at the Reichman University. Lee has a background in semiconductor devices and physics and industrial experience working at TowerJazz Semiconductors. Her current research focuses on new sensor technologies for bio-applications and agriculture.