• The purpose of the chair is to promote research and technology transfer in the field of Artificial Intelligence specifically applied to the agricultural and fishing sectors. The focus will cover the entire production chain, with particular emphasis on sustainability and optimization of production and exploitation, and will start with an important project for the development of organic agriculture.
• SATEC has extensive experience in developing AI tools for agriculture, such as its VID-Expert project for monitoring weather and soil variables in viticulture.
• The chair will be funded by the Next Generation EU funds within the call for the creation of university-business chairs (Cátedras ENIA), with contributions from SATEC and the University of Oviedo.

Oviedo, February 2, 2024 – The Asturian technology multinational Grupo SATEC has signed an agreement with the University of Oviedo to create a chair in Artificial Intelligence applied to Earth and Marine Sciences.

Objectives of the SATEC Chair

The SATEC Chair starts with a project on Artificial Intelligence applied to agriculture and aims to promote research and technology transfer in the field of Artificial Intelligence through the development of innovative solutions, as well as disseminating the possibilities of this technology and the results obtained through various dissemination activities and academic collaboration.

The Chair will carry out research, training, and dissemination activities on this technology among the research groups at the University of Oviedo. These activities will include presenting projects for national and international calls, hosting seminars on AI solutions, promoting the use of AI technology in related subjects in various programs at the University of Oviedo, supervising master’s or bachelor’s thesis projects, conducting external internships, organizing awards for the best projects, and participating in and sponsoring congresses and scientific or popular publications.

The Chair has been funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation with one of the grants for the creation of ENIA university-business chairs, aimed at the research and development of Artificial Intelligence, in line with the European Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, funded by the European Union-Next Generation EU.

According to Luis Rodríguez Ovejero, president of Grupo SATEC, “this agreement once again demonstrates our company’s commitment to developing local talent in Asturias. We strengthen our bond with the University to promote teaching, research, knowledge dissemination, entrepreneurship, and innovation to foster transversal digital transformation in sectors of great importance for sustainability, such as Earth and Marine Sciences, particularly agriculture.”

For his part, Antonio Bahamonde, professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, considers that “the current project involves the development of AI tools, including the handling of aerial images and meteorological data.” “The goal of these R&D actions would be to monitor extensive plantations, triggering alarms when abnormal situations occur, which, when corrected, will improve the final yield. This goal is perhaps the most striking, but other tools to assist all processes related to agricultural product production and sales are also foreseen.”

The rector of the University of Oviedo, Ignacio Villaverde, highlighted that this is an example of effective knowledge transfer from the University to the productive sector. “The project is also, from an academic perspective, a way of completing the training cycle in intelligent data management,” he pointed out.

The project will be developed at the Artificial Intelligence Center at the University of Oviedo’s Gijón Campus, which has an excellent team of researchers who have managed to secure highly competitive funding.

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