07/08/2023

IMPA postdoctoral researcher creates AI to aid wine production.

Postdoctoral researcher Marlon López from the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at IMPA is working in partnership with the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Talca, Chile, on the development of artificial intelligence capable of preventing grapevines from becoming ill and, consequently, agricultural losses. The collaboration began earlier this year and aims to develop a mathematical model that indicates to farmers the right time to adopt control measures and prevent the appearance and spread of diseases that compromise production in vineyards.

“The idea is to create a mathematical model that can be used with artificial intelligence and develop an automatic system that detects the conditions for the appearance of diseases. The tool will identify the chances of the fruit becoming diseased and allow for control actions before critical periods,” explains López.

On the 13th, the researcher will travel to the Maule region to continue the project "Projection of sustainable production through biomodeling and artificial intelligence". The work is a partnership with the Research Center for Investment Transfer in Irrigation and Agroclimatology (CITRA), belonging to the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Talca. The institution conducts scientific and technological research in the area of irrigation, biomathematical modeling and precision agriculture.

Conference in Campinas

Before traveling to Chile, López will participate this Monday (7) in the 6th Brazil Interpore Chapter Conference on Porous Media , which takes place until August 9 in Campinas (SP). At the event, he will present topological methods capable of indicating a strategy for injecting fluids of different concentrations into porous media. The objective is to optimize the recovery of oil that is in the reservoir and will pass to a producing well. The work, developed at the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of IMPA, is the result of more than 30 years of research.

“Professor Dan Marchesin and his collaborators have been working on this for over 30 years. For me, it’s an honor to have the chance to be part of this group. We’ve managed to improve certain situations and now we want to extend this to other interesting cases in the literature,” López explained.

The 6th Brazil Interpore Conference on Porous Media focuses on advancements in research, methods, applications, and theory of porous media. The event aims to disseminate knowledge in the field and strengthen collaboration between institutions. This year, the meeting will feature 12 plenary sessions with national and international researchers, spread over three days, in addition to oral presentations.

A mathematical engineer by training, from the National Autonomous University of Honduras, López earned a master's degree and later a doctorate in mechanical engineering with a specialization in transport phenomena from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). He began working at IMPA in 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher at the institute under the supervision of Dan Marchesin, in the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.