The NSW Smart Sensing Network welcomed the diverse smart sensing community over informal drinks and networking at UTS this month. The quarterly event attracts a wide variety of entrepreneurs, manufacturers, designers, developers and researchers of smart sensing and offers a chance to connect and share opportunities.

Vice-President of Research & Development at AgriWebb, Dr Kenneth Sabir.

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UTS, Professor Chris Turney, welcomed the audience to UTS for the event and spoke of the value of university-industry collaboration.

Vice-President of Research & Development at AgTech startup, AgriWebb, Dr Kenneth Sabir, spoke about his own experience of the power of collaboration for R&D impact.

AgriWebb was founded in Australia in 2014 and has now expanded to North America, South America, Europe, South Africa and New Zealand.

Their livestock management technology has helped 14,000 users transfer from “trial and error” pen and paper being the go-to record-keeping tool on the farm to a data-driven method of farm management.

NSW Smart Sensing Network Chief Operating Officer Nicholas Haskins (left) and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at UTS, Professor Chris Turney.

More than 60 million animals – sheep and cattle – on more than 5,000 farms have been managed by the AgriWebb system.

“How do you improve your business without knowing your business?,” Dr Sabir said.

He also described some of the challenges around AgTech, such as the challenge of recruiting engineers “who would prefer to work at Google” but who get excited once they learn they will be working with IoT and satellites.

How to use the data from the 60 million animals they have collected over eight years is another challenge.

AgriWebb’s livestock management technology has helped 14,000 users transfer from “trial and error” pen and paper to a data-driven method of farm management.

Dr Sabir described AgriWebb’s involvement in the multi-partner project FORAGECASTER, a four-year research project which is proposing to develop a grazing planner.

It accounts for seasonal forecasts, pasture growth and livestock growth, and understands pasture quality from remote sensing. It will also give accurate livestock growth predictions by machine learning across 60 million head, as well as provide sustainability reporting.

AgriWebb have set up a new R&D Group which will foster collaboration to push agricultural research with universities, government, industry bodies, research institutes and integration partners.

Members of the sensing industry and researchers from across the sensing ecosystem attended the event.

The UTS event was the last in the Sensing Industry Connect series for 2023 but the series will return in February 2024 at UNSW in Kensington.

Sensing Industry Connect comes to UTS