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| Growing, Production and Environmental Engineering |
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| Head:
Giorgi Shtenberg, Ph.D.
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The Department's research teams cover the following areas: - Controlled Agriculture and Environmental Control
- Studies related to greenhouses and livestock housing cover: internal environmental control, i.e., heating, cooling, ventilation, relative humidity, and online recording; and structural characteristics, i.e., size and shape, resistance to wind loads, ventilation, and interchangeable covers;
- The team is also involved in developing and testing methods for improving the air and sea transportation conditions of exported agricultural products by means of, e.g., vacuum cooling, cooling in ships and containers, development of packaging materials and methods, improvement of bulk shipping and of unrefrigerated air transportation.
- The main focus of R&D in the Laboratory for Research on Pest Management is on pest management through improved application techniques and integrated pest management concepts. An important objective in all studies is elimination of pesticide residues from the marketed product. Specific studies cover:
- Improvement of the control of soilborne pathogens and pests with new fumigants, organic amendments and an integrated approach to control and suppression of soilborne pests;
- Soil solarization and plastic mulch technologies are also intensively studied.
- The Production Engineering research team covers:
- Development of machinery, methods and auxiliary equipment to reduce the damage to agricultural products during growing, harvesting and transportation;
- The robot-human interaction in intensive advanced production systems designed to reduce human labor in various stages of production.
- The Environmental Engineering team's studies cover:
- Waste management in intensive plant and livestock production systems;
- Recycling of industrial and urban waste water for agricultural use;
- Environmental effects of pest management applications.
- The Zootechnology team studies engineering aspects of livestock production and management in the dairy, poultry and aquaculture industries, including:
- Sensors, including R&D of specific sensors;
- Production and simulation models that support precision livestock farming, to enable sustainable production while maintaining high welfare and health standards.
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| Staff |
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| Researchers |
Name
(Surname, First name) |
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Research Interests /
Job description |
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| Abu Tayeh Hiba N., Ph.D. |
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Research and development of technologies for the treatment of agricultural waste for recycling and/or producing added-value products. |
| Alchanatis Victor, D.Sc. |
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Sensors for precision agriculture: hyperspectral and thermal imaging; Computer vision; Multispectral image processing; Quality Evaluation of agricultural products by non-destructive methods. |
| Bechar Avital, Prof. |
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Robotics and Automation
Human Robot Interaction
Industrial engineering for agricultural production
Work study
Electrostatic technologies
Pollination technologies
computer vision |
| Gamliel Abraham, Prof. |
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Pest management strategies,methods and technologies
Plant and food biosecurity
invasive pests and their management
Soilborne pathogens and their management
Soil disinfestations,and soil solarization |
| Halachmi Ilan, Prof. |
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Precision livestock farming (PLF)
Smart Sensing of Animal Welfare
Robotic milking.
Recirculating aquaculture systems.
Modeling and simulating the individual animal behavior,
sensing technologies (new sensors, image analyses, automatic monitoring of animals traits, production physiology, health, welfare, productivity etc).
Farming system design and management. |
| Horesh Amihai, Ph.D. |
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Fluid mechanics
Acoustic streaming
Micro/Nanofluidics
precision agriculture
Engineering and system design
Development and application of precise spraying technologies
thermodynamics |
| Jamal Alaa, Ph.D. |
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Process control, optimization, data assimilation, machine learning, water resources management, aquaculture. |
| Salzer Yael, Ph.D. |
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Yael Salzer is a scientific researcher in the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the Agricultural Research Organization - Volcani Center, where she has been on the tenure track since 2017. Yael completed her Ph.D. and M.Sc. in cognitive psychology and human factors at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and her undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at Tel-Aviv University. Prior to joining the ARO she was a post-doctorate at University van Amsterdam (2015-2017). Her research interests lie in the area of understanding and facilitating decision making among cultivators and herdsmen, ranging from theory to design to implementation. She is actively collaborating with researchers and professionals in several disciplines, inter alia veterinarians, computer scientists, engineers and farmers. |
| Shtenberg Giorgi, Ph.D. |
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1. Label-free optical biosensors based on nanomaterials, nanoparticles and thin-films.
2. Combined sensing techniques based on a single-device platform (all-in-one) for agricultural applications.
3. Rapid bioassays for monitoring environmental pollutants (heavy-metals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, hormones, toxins).
4. Multifunctional nanoparticles for early diagnosis of animal diseases, field crops quality control and food safety.
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| Vitoshkin Elena (Helena), Ph.D. |
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-Development of efficient closed plant production systems;
-Investigation of hydrophobic greenhouse cover materials properties (light transmittance, diffusivity, heat transfer, condensation and dust removal);
-Empirical study of greenhouse control of flow, temperature and shading;
-Computational modeling of mass transfer in porous media for the purpose of soil fertilizers release optimization;
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| Engineers/Technicians |
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| Scholars |
Name
(Surname, First name) |
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Research Interests /
Job description |
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| Retiree |
Name
(Surname, First name) |
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Research Interests /
Job description |
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| Arbel Abraham, Ph.D. |
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Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); Greenhouse climate control; Solar energy; Evaporative cooling systems; Dehumidification systems; Soil solarization; Thermal screen; Wind load; Greenhouse structure |
| Barak Mordechai, Mr. |
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| Maltz Ephraim, Ph.D. |
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Animal physiology, physiology of lactation, dairy management including robot milking, heat stress effects, precision livestock farming, livestock behaviour and welfare, sensing and monitoring individual livestock performance and behavior. |
| Riven Yehudit |
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| Steiner Bracha, Ms. |
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