2021 Research Showcase

Future Food Systems CRC projects bring industry, academic and government partners together to solve real-world challenges. In this event, we showcase a cross-section of these exciting collaborations, presented by CRC industry partners and research experts. Sessions will cover:

• Specialist food-industry clusters and fostering trade, through projects such as our ‘Blockchain for smart trade’, ‘Coffs analytics’, ‘Commercialising native rice’ and ‘National map of protected cropping systems’ collaborations
• Novel tech and data-enabled solutions for future farming systems, as exemplified by projects with WBS, Perfection Fresh, LLEAF and Hort Innovation
• Innovation in value-added foods, plant-based health foods and precision nutrition through projects with Sanitarium, WA DPIRD, Bruker and EcoMag

Download flyer here

Schedule

Housekeeping

12:25pm log into the zoom meeting for 12:30pm start

12:30pm - 12:35pm | Welcome and introduction

Prof. Cordelia Selomulya

12:35pm - 12:40pm | Program 1 overview

Prof. Doug Baker

12:40pm - 12:55pm | General purpose digital infrastructure enabling cross-border trade

Adj. Prof. Warwick Powell (BeefLedger)

12:55pm - 1:10pm | Sowing seeds to grow the Coffs Coast food ecosystem

Dr Ozgur Dedehayir

1:10pm - 1:20pm | Commercialisation of Australian native rice development

Prof. Sagadevan G. Mundree

1:20pm - 1:25pm | Mapping protected cropping systems in Australia, industry engagement featuring the PCS Survey

Craig Shephard & Joel McKechnie

1:25pm - 1:30pm | Program 2 overview

Dist. Prof. David Tissue

1:30pm – 1:45pm | Luminescent Light Emitting Agricultural Film (LLEAF): The next evolution of protected cropping to increase crop productivity sustainably

Dr Alex Soeriyadi (LLEAF)

1:45pm – 2:00pm | Remote sensing technology in protected cropping

Dr Yimeng Feng & Mark Cardamis

2:00pm – 2:15pm | Artificial automation of precision pollination of crops

Dr Chris Cazzonelli

2:15pm – 2:20pm | Program 3 overview

Mike Ridout

2:20pm - 2:35pm | Sanitarium development and innovation research projects

Dr John Ashton (Sanitarium)

2:35pm – 2:50pm | Analytical techniques for value-added solutions

Dr Ruey Leng Loo

2:50pm – 3:05pm | Collaboration in process improvement: Spray-drying of EcoMag magnesium-based products at UNSW

Dr Tam Tran (EcoMag)

3:05pm - 3:10pm | Conclusion

Prof. Cordelia Selomulya

About the sessions

Program 1

Projects laying the groundwork for future-focused agrifood hubs and developing smart digital platforms that prove the provenance of premium Australian goods to consumers in lucrative export markets.

Program 1 overview

Prof. Doug Baker (QUT)

General purpose digital infrastructure enabling cross-border trade

Adj. Prof. Warwick Powell (BeefLedger). Read more about BeefLedger here. Read more about the ‘Smart Trade Hubs’ project here.

Sowing seeds to grow the Coffs Coast food ecosystem

Dr Ozgur Dedehayir (QUT). Read more about the ‘Coffs analytics’ project here.

Commercialisation of Australian native rice

Prof. Sagadevan G. Mundree (QUT). Read more about the ‘Commercialising native rice’ project here.

Mapping protected cropping systems in Australia, industry engagement featuring the PCS Survey

Craig Shephard (UNE) & Joel McKechnie (UNE). Read more about the ‘National map of protected cropping systems’ project here.

Program 2

Projects exploring technological and data-driven solutions for future protected-cropping systems, including customised light-spectra-selective films, advanced IoT sensor set-ups for indoor-cropping operations and cost-effective, scalable modular systems for vertical farms.

Program 2 overview

Dist. Prof. David Tissue (WSU).

Luminescent Light Emitting Agricultural Film (LLEAF): The next evolution of protected cropping to increase crop productivity sustainably

Dr Alex Soeriyadi (LLEAF). Read more about LEAFF here. Read more about the ‘Smart Glass’ project here.

Remote sensing technology in protected cropping

Dr Yimeng Feng (UNSW) & Mark Cardamis (UNSW). Read more about the ‘IoT for indoor cropping’ project here.

Advancing an acoustic-induced pollination solution for protected cropping

Dr Chris Cazzonelli. Read more about the ‘Acoustic pollination’ project here.

Program 3

Projects helping to increase the value-adding capability of Australia’s agrifood sector through innovations in QA and production protocols, formulation for high-value customised goods, verifying functional foods and precision nutrition products, and finding circular-economy-based design solutions for future food factories.

Program 3 overview

Mike Ridout, Research Engagement Manager (Murdoch University).

Sanitarium development and innovation research projects

Dr John Ashton, Strategic Research Manager (Sanitarium). Read more about Sanitarium here. Read more about the ‘Improving plant-based food’ project here, ‘New protein production’ project here and ‘Art of grain drying’ project here.

Analytical techniques for value-added solutions

Dr Ruey Leng Loo (Murdoch University/ANPC). Read more about ANPC here. Read more about the ‘Analytical Assessment of Food Quality and Processing Systems, Tracing, Biochemistry and Nutritional Properties of Foods’ project here.

Collaboration in process improvement: Spray-drying of EcoMag magnesium-based products at UNSW

Dr Tam Tran (EcoMag). Read more about EcoMag here and about the ‘Nutraceutical spray-drying’ project here.

About the speakers

Prof. Cordelia Selomulya, University of New South Wales, NSW

Cordelia Selomulya joined UNSW in late 2019 as a Professor (Food & Health) in the School of Chemical Engineering and as Research & Commercialisation Director for the Future Food Systems CRC. Prior to her joining UNSW she was an ARC Future Fellow at Monash University, where she also led the Biotechnology and Food Engineering group, which had an internationally recognised reputation in particle engineering and drying technology research, particularly for food and dairy applications. Read more here.

Program 1

Prof. Doug Baker, Queensland University of Technology, QLD

Doug Baker is a Professor in the School of Built Environment at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane. His areas of expertise include land-use planning, airport management, regional air transport and infrastructure logistics. Read more here.

Adj. Prof. Warwick Powell, BeefLedger, QLD

Warwick Powell is the chairman and founder of BeefLedger Ltd and an Adjunct Professor of QUT. BeefLedger is a blockchain-based supply chain tracking and payments platform development company. Read more here.

Dr Ozgur Dedehayir, Queensland University of Technology, QLD

Dr Ozgur (Oz) Dedehayir is passionate about food. Not only does he love to cook; he loves exploring food innovation. In recent years, his research has focused on the rise of plant-based food innovation and entrepreneurship. He also organised what was arguably the world’s first plant-based cooking contest in Brisbane. Read more here.

Prof. Sagadevan G. Mundree, Queensland University of Technology, QLD

Professor Mundree is currently the Director of the Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy at Queensland University of Technology. Prior to joining QUT, he was a Senior Executive in the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (QPIF) where he led a team that was responsible for QPIF’s Investments in Research, Development and Extension in all the primary industries of Queensland. Read more here.

Craig Shephard, University of New England, NSW

Craig holds a Bachelor of Science, with expertise in R&D and the application of web-GIS technology. Location is the common framework for integrating data, delivering data via web-GIS opens it up to all. Read more here.

Joel McKechnie, University of New England, NSW

Joel holds a BSc with expertise in R&D and GIS. He combines this experience with field surveying, stakeholder engagement and citizen science to capture, analyse and share spatial information that facilitates his research partners to make better decisions, driven by data. Read more here.

Program 2

Dist. Prof. David Tissue, Western Sydney University, NSW

Distinguished Professor David Tissue is the Scientific Research Director for the National Vegetable Protected Cropping Centre (NVPCC) and Discipline Leader for Agriculture and Food Science at WSU. He has a long history of working alongside agricultural industries in the United States and Australia. Read more here.

Dr Alex Soeriyadi, Co-founder / CEO of LLEAF Pty Ltd

Dr Alex Soeriyadi is a chemical engineer with a PhD from UNSW. His previous academic achievements include an Australian Museum Eureka Finalist accolade and a NHMRC fellowship. In LLEAF, Dr Soeriyadi has created a patent-pending material that engineers light (such as sunlight) to improve the crop growth cycle. Read more here.

Dr Yimeng Feng, University of New South Wales, NSW

Dr Yimeng Feng joined the University of New South Wales as a Postdoc Research Associate in 2021. She was a dual PhD researcher at University of Technology Sydney and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Current areas of interest include the Internet of Things (IoT) in farming. Read more here.

Mark Cardamis, University of New South Wales, NSW

In 2008, Mark Cardamis completed a Bachelor of Engineering with a Major in Mechatronics (First Class Honours) from UNSW Sydney. He is interested in farms of the future and is currently working on the ‘IoT for indoor cropping’ project. Read more here.

Dr Chris Cazzonelli, Western Sydney University, NSW

Dr Chris Cazzonelli is a Senior Lecturer in Plant Molecular Biology at Western Sydney University. He leads the Environmental Epigenetics Laboratory to discover molecular mechanisms that program morphological adaptation and maintain metabolic homeostasis in plants responding to mechanical stimulation and light-mediated stress. Read more here.

Program 3

Mike Ridout, Research Engagement Manager, Murdoch University, WA

Mike Ridout is helping to build collaborative ventures based on R&D and innovation. He brings experience in national and international industry, R&D and innovation networks to his work in complex, multi-sector environments across corporate, government and research sectors. Read more here

Dr John Ashton, Strategic Research Manager, Sanitarium

Dr John Ashton BSc(Hons) PhD MSc CChem FRACI FAIFST is Strategic Research Manager for the Sanitarium Health Food Company and serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Food Chemistry & Biophysics Group at RMIT University. He has authored 50 peer reviewed research papers, six book chapters and 15 books. Read more here.

Dr Ruey Leng Loo, Murdoch University/ANPC, WA

Dr Ruey Leng Loo is a Western Australia Premier’s Early to Mid-Career Fellow. She has expertise in epidemiological studies and in data analytics for metabolic phenotyping. Her research delivers new knowledge of dietary impacts on human metabolism and health/disease, and provides a translational bridge to the food science industry. Read more here.

Dr Tam Tran, Chief Technology Officer, EcoMag

After finishing his PhD at UNSW, Dr Tran worked at BHP Research Labs in Newcastle before returning to UNSW. He then spent nine years with Chonnam National University leading a research team working on new energy material processing. Dr Tran was a co-developer of the EcoMag technology, recovering magnesium from the waste bitterns of a solar salt operation in Karratha, WA. The company is commercialising this project, aiming to produce pharmaceutical grade products such as Mg carbonate, oxide, hydroxide and Mg organic salts from this abundant resource. here.

Further information

Registration is free of charge.

For further information about this event or about CRC research projects, contact:

Emma Hills: Future Food Systems Cooperative Research Centre

emma.hills@futurefoodsystems.com.au