Institute of Facility Agriculture Engineering at Jiangsu University aims for R&D of key technology and equipment for the production process of facility agriculture to improve the productivity and cost effectiveness by the following specific ways: intelligent optimization control of greenhouse environment, information acquisition and utilization of soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, precise fertigation, harvesting robotics, optimal design and intelligentization of agricultural facilities. Research team of the institute has three professors, five associate research fellows, among whom two PhD advisories. The team is characteristic of interdisciplinary cross and fusion to achieve stronger innovation capability. Graduates and post-doctors at the institute are encouraged to participate in modeling, observation, theoretical studiesof the interaction relationship among plants, structures, water and soil, atmosphere, and agricultural equipment, with special emphasis upon the flow of energy and information, and modern agriculture logistics, and system development.
The institute has successfully developed model bases of greenhouse crop growth, climate model and environment control mode and established comprehensive environment control system for greenhouse production with optimal economy. The dynamic adjustment of nutrient solution ingredients was developed and applied to the automatic fertigation apparatus. Spectroscopy, machine vision and polarization imaging are integrated to detect the crop growth, physiology and to achieve nondestructive and online quality test. We are adopting the technology of Internet of Things, harvesting robotics and frost protection to develop decision-making system and corresponding equipment for orchard production.
The institute has won the second prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress Award, and the second prize of National Teaching Achievement Award. Fifty –two inventive patents, forty-three utility model patents and more than ten pieces of software copyrighthave been licensed. More than two hundred academic papers have been published by the institute, among which 132 papers have been indexed by SCI/EI.
The institute is currently carrying out one Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of China, five projects of Natural Science Foundation of China, one National Key Technology Support Program and one National High Technology Research and Development Program.
We are expecting the fruitful fundamental and applied researches in agro-biological environmental engineering for a better life in the near future.
