About the Series
Session 1: Feb 22/23
Session 2: May 1/2
Session 3: Jun 20/21

Amidst a shifting post-pandemic landscape, there is a growing emphasis on regional efforts to extend the shelf life of food and foster collaboration in precision agriculture technology, as consumers increasingly seek locally sourced options and contemplate self-sustainable food systems. To address this new trend, the APRU Food Security Working Group was formed in 2023, striving to facilitate the process of forming new solutions by bringing out collective research capabilities and outcomes from the APRU network.  

The APRU Food Security Webinar Series 2024 is the first initiative conceived and developed by the WG, aiming to delve into regional technological advancements in two focal areas: 1) precision agriculture, and 2) agritech solutions for prolonging food shelf life. Join us for insightful discussions with invited speakers throughout the first half of 2024.

Session 1
“AI-based Drone Mapping Solutions” & “Sustainable Cold Chain: Jelly Ice Cubes”
February 22 Thursday at 5pm (Vancouver, Los Angeles)
/ February 23 Friday at 9am (Singapore, Taipei) 
/ February 23 Friday at 11:30am (Adelaide)
Watch the recording here

Session 2
“AI in Agriculture” & “Sensory Tools to Improve Food Shelf-Life Evaluation”
May 1 Wednesday at 6pm (Vancouver, Los Angeles)
/ May 2 Thursday at 9am (Singapore, Taipei) 
/ May 2 Thursday at 10:30am (Adelaide) 
Watch the recording here

Session 3
“Agrifood Resilience” & “Beneficial Bacteria with Food Waste”

June 20 Thursday at 6pm (Vancouver, Los Angeles)
/ June 21 Friday at 9am (Singapore, Taipei) 
/ June 21 Friday at 10:30am (Adelaide) 
Watch the recording here

APRU Food Security Working Group

APRU Food Security Working Group was formed in 2023 by inaugural APRU member experts including: Professor Woo Soo Kim (Chair),  Simon Fraser University, Canada; Professor Ming-Ju Chen, National Taiwan University, Taiwan; Professor Thorsten Wohland, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Director Anne Lochoff, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Associate Professor Christopher Ford [Associate Professor Susan Bastian succeeded the role from March 2024], The University of Adelaide, Australia;  Professor Ermias Kebreab, UC Davis, USA. 

“AI-based Drone Mapping Solutions” & “Sustainable Cold Chain: Jelly Ice Cubes”
February 22 Thursday at 5pm (Vancouver, Los Angeles)
/ February 23 Friday at 9am (Singapore, Taipei) 
/ February 23 Friday at 11:30am (Adelaide)
Watch the recording here

The inaugural webinar is hosted by Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis)

Speakers:
Dr. Bing Lu, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, SFU, “Investigating Blueberry Scorch Virus Infection Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based Imagery and Deep Learning
Dr. Jiahan Zou, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Food Science and Technology, UC Davis, “Sustainable Temperature Controls: A Critical Step for Ensuring Food Safety and Quality

Moderators:
Dr. Woo Soo Kim, Scientific Director, B.C. Centre for Agritech Innovation (BCCAI), SFU
Dr. Ermias Kebreab, Professor and Sesnon Endowed Chair, Department of Animal Science, UC Davis

Discussant:
Dr. Gang Sun, Professor, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UC Davis

Download the Speakers’ Profiles and Abstracts

“AI in Agriculture” & “Sensory Tools to Improve Food Shelf-Life Evaluation”
May 1 Wednesday at 6pm (Vancouver, Los Angeles)
/ May 2 Thursday at 9am (Singapore, Taipei) 
/ May 2 Thursday at 10:30am (Adelaide) 
Watch the recording here

The 2nd webinar is hosted by National Taiwan University (NTU) and The University of Adelaide (UoA)

Speakers:
Dr. Shih-Fang Chen, Associate Professor, Department of Biomechatronics Engineering, NTU, “AI in Agriculture: From Field Plant Monitoring to Postharvest Quality Evaluation
Dr. Matthew Wilson, Senior Lecturer, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, UoA, “Sensory Tools to Improve Food Shelf-Life Evaluation

Moderators:
Prof. Ming-Ju Chen, Professor, Department of Animal Science and Technology, NTU
Dr. Matthew Knowling, Lecturer and Research Program Lead in Decision Agriculture, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, UoA

Download the Speakers’ Profiles and Abstracts

“Agrifood Resilience” & “Beneficial Bacteria with Food Waste”
June 20 Thursday at 6pm (Vancouver, Los Angeles)
/ June 21 Friday at 9am (Singapore, Taipei) 
/ June 21 Friday at 10:30am (Adelaide) 
Watch the recording here

The 3rd webinar is hosted by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and National University of Singapore (NUS)

Speakers:

Dr. Yansong Miao, Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, NTU Singapore, “Precision Engineering for Agriculture Agrifood Resilience
Dr. Dan Li, Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science & Technology, National Singapore University, “1 + 1 > 2 : Selective Support of Beneficial Bacteria with Food Waste

Moderators:

Prof. Kah Leong Lim, Associate Vice President of Research (Biomedical and Life Sciences), NTU Singapore
Prof. Thorsten Wohland, Director of Research Governance & Enablement, NUS

Download the Speakers’ Profiles and Abstracts

Register Here

Speakers
Bing Lu (Speaker)
Simon Fraser University

Dr. Bing Lu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. His research is focused on remote sensing (e.g., drone- and satellite-based imaging) and its applications in ecosystem monitoring. He has been trying to use remote sensing as an agritech for evaluating crop health and soil health and investigating the impacts of climate change and extreme events (e.g., heatwave, flooding).

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Jiahan Zou (Speaker)
University of California, Davis

Dr. Jiahan Zou currently serves as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Food Science and Technology at UC Davis. With an interest in sustainable bio-based functional materials, she has been engaged in research for over 11 years. As part of her doctoral work, Jiahan is a key inventor of “Jelly Ice” and has been instrumental in its development. She transformed this visionary idea into a tangible prototype in three years and is now leading the effort to transition Jelly Ice from a laboratory innovation to a practical, everyday application. 

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Woo Soo Kim (Moderator)
Simon Fraser University

Prof. Woo Soo Kim is a Professor at the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, Simon Fraser University, Canada. His research interests include advancing 3-D printing technologies and exploring their applications in engineering. He received B.Sc. degree from Yonsei University, M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. He completed Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA.

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Ermias Kebreab (Moderator)
University of California, Davis

Prof. Ermias Kebreab is the Sesnon Endowed Chair in the Department of Animal Science at UC Davis. He has conducted extensive research in developing strategies for using feed additives to reduce methane emissions from livestock. He received his B.S. in biology from the University of Asmara, followed by an M.S. in integrative biology and a Ph.D. in ecological modeling from the University of Reading, UK.

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Shih-Fang Chen (Speaker)
National Taiwan University

Dr. Shih-Fang Chen is an associate professor in the Department of Biomechatronics Engineering at National Taiwan University. Her research focuses on applying image processing and spectral techniques to monitor plant status and evaluate quality. Specific research topics include plant growth monitoring, pest and disease identification, harvest time prediction, agricultural product grading, pesticide residue detection, and flavor prediction.

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Matthew Wilson (Speaker)
The University of Adelaide

Dr. Matthew Wilson is a senior lecturer at The University of Adelaide with a research background in food quality and preservation, horticulture, new crop development, plant physiology and sustainability. His research focuses on understanding how environmental conditions influence primary production, and the resulting effects on food chemistry and sensory perception. He is interested in further investigating the factors determining food quality, as measured by microbiological, instrumental and human based means.

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Ming-Ju Chen (Moderator)
National Taiwan University

Prof. Ming-Ju Chen is a Distinguished Professor at the National Taiwan University (NTU). Her research interests include isolation and identification of new bacteria and yeasts from different resources and application these strains in human food and animal feed. She also involves the development of a new platform to evaluate the functionality of probiotics and study the possible mechanism and pathway using multi-omics. She earned the PhD in Food Science and Technology at Ohio State University and Master in Animal Science at National Taiwan University.

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Matthew Knowling (Moderator)
The University of Adelaide

Dr. Matthew Knowling is a lecturer and research program lead in Decision Agriculture at The University of Adelaide. His work aims to achieve sustainable agricultural futures. His expertise is in the use of process simulation models and data analytics to help farmers, businesses and policy makers better manage their resources in the face of uncertainty. An area of particular focus is his research using mathematical optimisation and data assimilation approaches to translate the many disparate data streams that are increasingly available in agriculture, into actionable information for decision makers.

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Yansong Miao (Speaker)
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Dr. Yansong Miao is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr. Miao received his B.S. from Zhejiang University, China, followed by a Ph.D. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He was a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, before joining NTU in 2015. 

He leads an interdisciplinary research group focused on general cell signaling and sustainable agriculture. Dr. Miao’s innovative research contributes to agrifood technology significantly, earning him accolades such as the EMBO Global Investigator by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the Singapore National Research Foundation Investigator (NRFI) award by Singapore. 

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Dan Li (Speaker)
National University of Singapore

Dr. Dan Li is an assistant professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology, National University of Singapore. She also works as Associate Director of the Faculty Research Centre on Sustainable Urban Farming (SUrF) at NUS. Dr. Li obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Biological Science from Ghent University, Belgium in 2012. In 2011 and 2014, She won grant support from the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO) and worked as a visiting scholar at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in the USA and Nantes University in France, respectively.

Her research interests include detection and mitigation of foodborne viruses; emerging microbial threats in urban food production systems; and alternative antimicrobial and food preservation strategies.

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Kah Leong Lim (Moderator)
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Prof. Kah Leong Lim is Associate Vice President of Research (Biomedical and Life Sciences) at the President’s office of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also a President’s Chair in Translational Neuroscience. Professor Lim works closely with the Vice President of Research and Senior Vice President (Health and Life Sciences) to advance institutional initiatives for research excellence in Biomedical and Life Sciences. He was Vice Dean for Research at LKCMedicine from 2019-2023.

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Thorsten Wohland (Moderator)
National University of Singapore

Prof. Thorsten Wohland is Director of Research Governance & Enablement at National University of Singapore. He also serves as Director of the Centre for BioImaging Sciences, an interdisciplinary research unit founded by faculty from Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Physics. 

Prof. Wohland’s research interests include biophysical fluorescence, construction and development of new optical tools, and study of selected proteins and protein complexes on a single molecule level and in living cells.

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