At the direct interface of agro-ecological, digital and energy transitions, agri-machinery plays a key role in sustainable innovation in agriculture, thanks to the potential of new technologies.
ANTICIPATING CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The Agro-Machinery and New Technologies Chair, supported by UniLaSalle and its partners AGCO-Massey Ferguson, the Michelin Corporate Foundation, the Kuhn Group, the Hauts-de-France Regional Council and the European Union via FEDER funds, responds to the need for manufacturers to anticipate changes in agriculture, in order to design agricultural equipment and technological solutions that are as close as possible to farmers' needs.
The Agro-Equipment and New Technologies Chair brings together the academic knowledge of the various accredited research units (InTerACT and AGHYLE) and the knowledge of industrial partners in the field of agriculture, to meet the challenges of research in the field of agro-equipment and new technologies.
A scientific committee, under the guidance of the steering committee and the chairholder, defines the research program.
- Innovations in agri-machinery: soil protection, changing practices, new needs;
- Precision agriculture (plant, animal): decision-support tools, field/human/machine interface, energy efficiency for different types of agricultural operations;
- Digital agriculture: big data, data flows, equipment interoperability...
Since September 2016, a two-year in-depth "Agroéquipements et Nouvelles Technologies" course has been offered to students entering their 4th year at UniLaSalle (internal recruitment and parallel admissions).
Based on scientific knowledge of agronomy and without ever losing sight of the end-user, i.e. the farmer, this course provides engineering students with expertise in the challenges of industrial design of agricultural equipment and digital agriculture. Emphasis is also placed on product marketing.
The Bachelor of Agriculture, Digital and Embedded Technologies (AgriTEC) welcomed its first class in September 2021. This Bachelor's equivalent degree aims to train the next generation of middle managers in the agricultural equipment industry, at the interface between equipment, embedded technologies and farmers.