Special Session 3

Digital technologies are playing an important role in the development of crop and livestock farming, and have the potential to be the key drivers of sustainable development of agro-industrial systems.
In the last years, innovative sensors, software, monitoring and control systems have been developed and optimized in the agricultural sector, allowing the farms to take advantage of more and more precise knowledge of the metrics involved in cultivation, production and processing. IoT enabled sensor networks and cloud computing help in the transmission of data in real-time among different destinations. It performs monitoring, prediction, decision planning, and making decisions.
With a specific focus on agricultural facilities, the goal of the present special session is to provide a forum for focused discussions on the smart monitoring and control systems specifically designed or adapted for agro-industrial facilities and the related applications.

Contributions are expected to deal with, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Smart Sensing Technology for Environmental Monitoring (indoor/outdoor);
• Feasibility and Application of Precision Livestock Farming technologies;
• New technological approaches for Agro-food Safety Quality;
• Digital technologies for sustainability purposes;
• Innovative System and Method for Monitoring Energy Efficiency in Agricultural facilities;
• Data analysis and modelling;
• Validation and calibration procedures.

Andrea Pezzuolo, is a researcher at the Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture, and Forestry of the University of Padova in the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering field – Rural Buildings and Agro-forestry Land Planning.
His main research activities deal with: Precision Livestock Farming, Automation and Sensor Technology; Bioenergy from Biomass, By-products and Biowaste; Rural and Livestock Buildings.
He authored several publications on national and international journals and conferences proceedings and published various papers on ISI WoS and Scopus Journals. He is referee for various international scientific journals.
Andrea Pezzuolo is member of: Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering/Associazione Italiana di Ingegneria Agraria (AIIA); Interdepartmental Centre “Giorgio Levi Cases” for Energy Economics and Technology of University of Padova; Editorial board of Sustainability, Agri-Engineering, Animals – “System and Management Section”, Biofuels Bioproducts and Biorefining and Research of Agricultural Engineering.

Carlo Bibbiani, Civil Engineer, Ph. D. in “Rural Engineering”. Associate Professor in Agricultural, Forestry and Biosystem Engineering (AGR/10 - Rural buildings and Agro-Forestry) at University of Pisa. His main research activities are: Applications of renewable energy to Greenhouses; Green roofs and green walls for energy saving of buildings and their LCA; measurement methodologies of physical and hydraulic properties of growing media; Greenhouse Environment Simulation; Aquaculture and research activities on fish farming facilities; Aquaponics and Integrated multi-trophyc aquaculture.

Alberto Barbaresi, Civil Engineer and Architect, Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering, is an assistant professor at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Bologna in the Agricultural and biosystems Engineering field - Rural Buildings and Agro-forest Land Planning.
His main research activities deal with: energy efficiency in food processing buildings, renewable energy source in the agricultural sector, analysis and design of agricultural and agro-industrial buildings for process optimization and minimization of environmental and landscape impact; smart farming and precision livestock farming systems; innovative LED lighting systems in protected crops; traditional rural building and landscape integration of the rural built system and infrastructure in rural areas; monitoring systems for environmental, production energy meseaurements.
He is member of the research team of the University of Bologna in several National and European projects
He presented articles and has been invited speaker and chairman in national and international conferences. He authored several publications on national and international journals and conferences proceedings and published various papers on ISI WoS and Scopus Journals. He is referee for various international scientific journals.
He is member of the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering/Associazione Italiana di Ingegneria Agraria (AIIA), EurAgEng, and (CIGR).

Hao Guo, Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering. Associate Professor in College of Land Science and Technology and College of Information and Electrical Engineering, China Agricultural University. His main research activities are: 3d point cloud processing and it application in agricultural field, Precision Livestock Farming, livestock status monitoring and body measurement.
He participates as member of the China Agricultural University in several projects from National Natural Science Foundation of China. He authored several publications on national and international journals and conferences proceedings, such as Computers and Electronics in Agriculture.
He has been invited speaker in national and international conferences.
He is the founder of Point Cloud Learning in China(PCLCN)(www.pclcn.org).
He is referee for various international scientific journals.
He is member of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering, China Computer Federation (CCF), China Society of Image and Graphics.
He is the committee member of the 3DV in China.