Technologies ranging from automation to machine learning are revolutionizing how our food is grown, processed and developed. These tools are improving efficiency, reducing fertilizer use and creating stronger crops that can weather the effects of climate change.
Here's a look at some of the University of Guelph researchers who are at the forefront of innovation in Canada's food sector. They are available for interviews.
AI in agriculture
Dr. Mohsen Yoosefzadeh Najafabadi - Ontario Agricultural College
myoosefz@uoguelph.ca
Dr. Mohsen Yoosefzadeh Najafabadi is a dry bean breeder and computational biologist whose research combines genomics, multiomics, and AI to develop climate-resilient, high quality, high yield varieties. He has developed BeanGPT, a platform that harnesses generative AI to help breeders choose ideal varietals for their fields. The platform acts like a co-pilot for plant scientists and is based on hundreds of thousands of scientific articles and decades of collective knowledge.
Dr. Rozita Dara - College of Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences
drozita@uoguelph.ca
Dr. Rozita Dara, co-director of AI4Food, applies AI to revolutionize sustainable food production. Her work focuses on enhancing food safety, disease modeling and informed decision making, including monitoring outbreaks like avian flu, and optimizing greenhouse operations. Emphasizing ethical, user-centered and safe AI solutions, she aims to ensure technology benefits farmers, consumers and the environment. Dara also leads a national initiative on data strategy and AI sovereignty, to safeguard data and enable responsible innovation in agriculture.
Agriculture robotics
Dr. Medhat Moussa - College of Engineering
mmoussa@uoguelph.ca
Dr. Medhat Moussa s development of automated robotic systems reduces farmers' labour costs while increasing productivity and efficiency. Examples of his projects include the Guelph Intelligent Greenhouse Automation System (GIGAS), a smart robot capable of harvesting tomatoes with AI-powered vision and an advanced grip system. Another project features a machine vision and AI-based system to estimate weed density in lima beans, helping optimize spraying and enhance yields.
Cyberattacks and security breaches
Dr. Ali Dehghantanha - College of Computational, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences
adehghan@uoguelph.ca
Dr. Ali Dehghantanha is the director of U of G's Cyber Science Lab, where his research focuses on addressing cybersecurity challenges farmers and producers are facing. Dehghantanha helps farmers fight off hackers, while also exploring how to prevent attacks and develop data security standards. His lab produces cybersecurity self-assessment guides for dairy, beef, swine and aqua-culture industries, and he has built tabletop exercises for farms to practice decision-making at the time of attack and a customized Chatbot for farmers. His lab leads Canada's first national program (Secure-Agro) to train experts in cybersecurity in agri-food.
