2017-2018 / GERE0033-1

Controlled environment agriculture

Duration

24h Th, 48h Pr

Number of credits

 Master in environmental bioengineering (120 ECTS)6 crédits 

Lecturer

Frédéric Lebeau

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

Controlled environment agriculture is a new agronomic paradigm that aims at a crop production fully independant from outdoor conditions. If space eploration has been the fist technical field to be work on this for long stay, recent technological developments bring this agriculture closer to economical viability. Furthermore, this technology may offer some environmental virtues as water savings, pesticide free agriculture, very high yields or easy integration in urban environment for short food supply chain. 
The course aims at the investigation on such developments by an imersion in research and development of the laboratory on this subject.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

The course train students to the design of technological solutions that aims to define equipments, systems and infrastructure of food production that respect the environment
  The student must succeed to conduct a project whose specifications are complex and interlinked without any predefined methodology on the basis of partial information
The student aims to achieve engineering objectives in the strategic context of the project and applies multidisciplinary knowledges and skills (systems dynamics, mechanics, control engineering, building physics and special techniques, irrigation, plant physiology, environmental metrology, image analysis,...)

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

Physics
Mathematics
Biology
Chemistry

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Research and project-based learning

Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)

Face to face
Project

Recommended or required readings

Kozai Toyoki, Niu Genhua, Takagaki Michiko,  2015, Plant Factory  - An Indoor Vertical Farming System for Efficient Quality Food Production, ISBN : 0-12-801775-9 
Kozai Toyoki, Fujiwara Kazuhiro, Runkle Erik S., 2016, LED Lighting for Urban Agriculture, ISBN 978-981-10-1848-0

Assessment methods and criteria

Written report and oral presentation

Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

The project requires a face-and is not subject to an assessment in second session

Contacts