Innovation, “Agrifood Future Award”: here are the degree theses awarded in Salerno

Rewarding innovation aimed at bridging the gap between scientific production and the needs of the agri-food system. This is the goal of the Agrifood Future Award, the prize dedicated to the most innovative and impactful degree theses for the food sector awarded today in Salerno during Agrifood Future Research. The competition, in its first edition, was organized by Unioncamere, the Chamber of Commerce of Salerno, Rural Hack, Image Line® and examined over 100 master's degree theses (2022-2024) that promote sustainable innovation in agri-food systems to identify three works from an agricultural path, three from non-agricultural paths, and a special prize reserved for Agriculture and Renewable Energy. A jury of experts with the scientific direction of Alex Giordano , professor at the Federico II University of Naples and author of 'FoodSystem 5.0', evaluated the applications from 22 Italian and European universities . "We selected the winners - explained Giordano - by awarding theses that offer concrete and replicable solutions. These are research and solutions ready to be adopted by companies to respond to the agronomic, organizational and management challenges of the present. The aim of the initiative is in fact to enhance projects not only with a high environmental, economic and social impact, but also capable of activating cooperation between companies, communities, institutions and territorial actors". The works were evaluated for 'Clarity of exposition', 'Scientific method', 'Technological and/or process innovation', 'Impact and impact on food systems', 'Enhancement of cooperation'.

Among the agricultural papers, Enrico Giovanella (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) earned first place with a work that focuses on the use of hyperspectral images to identify invisible damage from the Asian bug to pears. Silver medal for Michele Gullino (University of Bologna), who worked on the accessibility of technologies, demonstrating that precision agriculture can be done even with low-cost tools and open source artificial intelligence. Beatrice Danesi (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Piacenza), in third place, showed the value of differentiation, using selective harvesting to respect the internal biodiversity of the vineyards and improve the quality of the wine. As for the non-agricultural theses, Leonardo Nitti (Polytechnic of Milan) stood out for having focused on prevention, with machine learning algorithms that read the signs of vine disease early. Second prize ex-aequo for Federica Amato (University of Padua) and Chiara Tezza (University of Verona), who focused respectively on the use of artificial intelligence for food safety and on the development of biological control strategies with autochthonous bacteria. In the category 'Agriculture and Renewable Energy', Lamiaa Chab (University of Tuscia) demonstrated the importance of an integrated approach for agriculture, forestry and renewable energy in an international framework.