On 9th October 2020, the IEEE AIUB Student Branch in collaboration with the IEEE Computer Society AIUB Student Branch Chapter successfully organized a webinar session titled Application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in Precision Agriculture: Issues and Challenges through the CISCO WEBEX MEETING platform. This webinar mainly focused on the primary and brief ideas on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in the field of Precision Agriculture along with the ways of implementing these technologies in this promising field. The session was conducted by Mohamed Rawidean Mohd Kassim Asia-Pacific (Region 10) Regional Coordinator, IEEE Computer Society; Research & Development Manager, Technology Deployment Department, Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia; Distinguished Speaker, IEEE Computer Society.
The seminar was inaugurated by the opening remarks from Prof. Dr A.B.M Siddique Hossain, Dean, Faculty of Engineering, AIUB; Advisor, IEEE AIUB Student Branch who talked about the importance of modern technologies including the importance of IoT in agriculture and how we need to adapt to technology along with WSN for developing the agricultural sector even further for better production. He also added by highlighting the fact that how the food demand has increased in the whole world due to the increased in the world’s population compared to the past few decades. He concluded by emphasizing the research and development sectors of monitoring sensors and controlling networks and also encouraged the participants regarding its tentative prospects.
After that, Mohamed Rawidean Mohd Kassim started the session by talking about his profession and gave a brief history on the topic of Wireless Sensor Networks and IoT along with the way these technologies have evolved compared to the past. He also elaborately explained the importance of IoT in the genre of Agriculture and also highlighted the evolution of the agricultural technologies from manual to the mode of automation. He also portrayed numerous figures to the audience that represents how farms will look in the future by means of advanced technologies considering the current World Food Supply and Demand. Mr Kassim then elaborately explained the architecture of the Wireless Sensor Networks and IoT sensors, including its working procedures along with its numerous advantages like higher yield. As a part of the instance, the speaker highlighted the examples of numerous oil palm breeding and smart mushroom cultivation systems where WSN and IoT sensors can be used for controlling and monitoring the entire process. Also, he also emphasized the disadvantages of avoiding these sensors by displaying some data that solidifies his statements.
Besides, Mr Kassim gave an overview of the steps that farmers should follow for implanting these smart cultivation systems to obtain the maximum possible productivity and also emphasized the disadvantages of avoiding these sensors by displaying some data that solidifies all his statements. Then, he elaborately talked about the issues and challenges that farmers generally faced for maintaining these smart cultivation farms to its fullest and also shared some required knowledge & awareness with the help of which farmers can deploy these systems in the rural areas. He concluded by talking about how agriculture production needs to be increased by the year 2050 to meet world food demands and explained how WSN, AI, Big Data, Robotics, Drones, Machine vision, and Cognitive technologies could play their respective role to achieve that. Following that, a Question-Answer Session took place where Mr Kassim effectively answered all the questions asked by the participant.
After that, Dr Mohammad Hasan Imam, Counselor, IEEE AIUB Student Branch; Senior Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering, AIUB took the platform and gave the concluding speech where he appreciated the initiatives taken by the student branch to organize this webinar and showed gratitude to the speaker for conducting the session. He also talked about the ongoing research works of Wireless Sensor Networks along with its current demand and healthy prospects. He also suggested the students adapt various technology along with WSNs for developing the agricultural sector for better yield considering the food demand of the country in the near future. Following that, a group photo session took place consisting of all the 75+ registered participants, which marked the end of the session.
