The Smart Agriculture Applied Research team at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology has been nominated for an ASTech Award.
Roy Maki, Research Project Manager; Yevgen Mykhaylichenko, Technology Integration Specialist; Sofia Bahmutsky, Data Scientist; and Julie Cobb, Research Technician make up part of a team of 20 people at Olds College vying for the prestigious honour of Researcher of the Year.
Maki has been leading the autonomous agriculture equipment initiative for broadacre crop production at Olds College. Roy and his team collected information and observations from the Raven OMNiPOWER™ platform for four years to understand the benefits and challenges of autonomous agriculture equipment.
“I’m extremely honoured for our team to receive this award nomination,” said Maki. “I feel there have been huge strides with autonomous agriculture because of the research on the Olds College Smart Farm. I believe the entire team at Olds College has pushed the envelope when it comes to autonomy on the farm.”
The results of the four-year autonomous study (found on page 36 to 40 of the 2024 Smart Farm Impact Report) at Olds College demonstrates how autonomous equipment could be a beneficial agricultural asset for a producer — and that specifically OMNiPOWER efficiency and fuel usage has improved over the past few years to a point where it rivals typical equipment used on Canadian Prairie farms.
Since 1990, the ASTech Foundation has honoured outstanding achievement in science and technology innovation in Alberta.
“The accomplishments of many of our award winners have been acknowledged through national and international recognition at the highest levels,” said ASTech on its website. “We applaud the ongoing success of our awardees.”
The winners will be announced Nov. 1 in Edmonton at the 2024 ASTech Awards Gala.
