A Promising Start of 2024: Reflecting on STELAR's Exciting Beginnings!
We’re thrilled to celebrate the beginnings of what promises to be a remarkable period! From important research papers to some interesting social media campaigns and webinars, let’s recap the highlights that have marked the start of our year!
Marking International Women in Science Day
Every February 11, UNESCO and UN-Women lead the celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, serving as a reminder of the invaluable contributions women make to scientific advancements worldwide.
To mark this occasion, STELAR devoted the entire month of February 2024 to honouring the supreme contributions of women within our project. With this in mind, we interviewed 5 women from the STELAR consortium who shared their perspectives on the position of female scientists in the STEM field.
Here are our remarkable women who contributed to this campaign:
- Maria-Eleni Dimitrakopoulou, Research Project Manager at Agroknow
- Silke Migdall, Managing Director at VISTA
- Vasiliki Pitsilou, Research Assistant at Athena Research Center
- Rachana Desai, Senior Data Scientist at Altair
- Eirini Ntoutsi, Full Professor of Open Source Intelligence at Bundeswehr University Munich
Addressing Data Integration Challenges: Meta-Blocking Explored
With large amounts of data coming from different sources in the agrifood sector, there is need for a system that facilitates the connection and comprehension of various data types.
This is the problem addressed by our STELAR partner, the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, in their recent research paper published in Volume 120 of ScienceDirect’s Information Systems journal. This paper focuses on meta-blocking, which addresses the challenge of combining disparate datasets.
To make these techniques even better, researchers experimented extensively to find the best methods, features, and even how much training data is needed. The result? Improved performance across different datasets used for testing.
Big congratulations to George Papadakis, a valued member of our consortium and one of the authors of this research paper!
Proudly Presenting STELAR in RefreSCAR’s Webinar
On March 21st, Maria-Eleni Dimitrakopoulou, PhD, Research Project Manager from Agroknow, shared her perspective and knowledge regarding “forever chemicals” a.k.a. PFAS during the “Emerging Food Safety Issues and Food Security: Versatile Approaches” webinar by the RefreSCAR project. The topic covering different emerging food safety issues caused by climate instability and food production practices, as well as innovative approaches aimed at enhancing food safety, were explored by four distinguished panellists.
RefreSCAR is focused on improving the strategic work and capacities of SCAR working groups in order to facilitate the improved coordination of national and European bioeconomy Research and Innovation programmes.
VISTA Presents STELAR at Two Events
STELAR partner VISTA was present in February at the 44th annual GIL Conference at the University of Hohenheim. With the happening highlighting the latest research and industry developments in digital agriculture, VISTA was a perfect fit for the event, showcasing STELAR’s innovative approach that uses hyperspectral satellite imaging to generate crucial training data.
Next up was the March event in San Francisco! At World AgriTech, STELAR was showcased in front of an audience of over 2,500, thus developing excellent networking connections! One highlight was the exchange about the STELAR project with industry experts centred around the potential of AI to enable earlier yield prediction, ultimately leading to more secure food production.
STELAR Holds Insightful Webinar Exploring Funding Opportunities
On January 29, STELAR held an internal webinar for its consortium members, focused on discussing and investigating diverse funding opportunities available from both public and private sources. It was hosted by the project’s Exploitation team from Foodscale Hub – Exploitation Manager Tatjana Knežević and Junior Business Analyst Jovana Malić. The webinar aimed to equip participants from research institutions and businesses alike with the needed knowledge and strategies to secure funding from various sources on national, regional, and EU levels.
Optimising Implementation of Precision Farming
A growing number of companies in the EU are dealing with the subject of precision farming. Initiatives like STELAR support farmers in implementing effective data management, a foundational element for precision farming adoption.
That is the reason we decided to dedicate the last couple of months to shedding light on the concept of precision farming and its techniques through a series of four insightful blog posts.
STELAR in the Media - Once Again!
