News--Welcome to National Chiayi University

　　National Chiayi University and iBase Technology Inc., an OTC-listed company, signed a contract for an academic-industrial cooperation project to establish the Smart Agriculture Command Center System on May 29th. The signing ceremony was attended by NCYU President Chyung Ay, Vice President Der-Ching Yang, Jan-Jeng Huang, Director of the Office for Academia-Industry Collaboration and Continuing Education, Hsu Shan-Te, Dean of the Office of Research and Development and other first-level supervisors of the university. Led by Chairman Lin Chiu-Hsu, representatives from iBase Technology included Vice Chairman Chen You-Nan and Deputy General Manager Lee Ga-Foo, among others. The project aims to capitalize on NCYU’s expertise in agricultural development and the emerging AIoT technology of smart IoT. By collecting data regarding, for example, agricultural production and fertilizer management, and conducting big data analysis on agriculture via the remote monitoring system, they hope to explore the optimum cultivation conditions for agricultural production, provide best solutions, and create a visible integrated structure on smart agriculture.

　　NCYU, which has been established for over a century, was founded on agricultural studies. In response to the latest trend of smart agriculture, the project is based on iBase Technology’s automatic control technology and R&D experience. In the earlier phase, NCYU will provide a strawberry greenhouse, and the smart environmental monitoring system designed by iBase Technology will be installed in the indoor cultivation facilities. Data collection will be carried out through the IoT network technology, complete with iBase Technology’s AGS100 gateway system as the edge computing equipment. The cultivation environment parameters within the strawberry greenhouse, such as soil, temperature or humidity in the surroundings, will be uploaded to the server database system of the Command Center for further analysis. An agricultural database will also be set up. Furthermore, in conjunction with the government’s smart city policy, the smart meter and other equipment installed in the greenhouse will be deployed with an intelligent automatic sprinkler irrigation system. The system, controllable through the cloud, can help save the manpower for irrigation and regulate irrigation volumes. The Command Center will be installed with an digital signage player system by iBase Technology. With the device, different fields can be displayed by the multi-screen display device, making possible simultaneous monitoring.

　　According to NCYU President Chyung Ay, the university boasts outstanding agricultural expertise and R&D results. The Intelligent Agriculture Research Center has since its founding in 2018 been dedicating itself to both the major fields of food safety and smart agriculture. In conjunction with the national policy of smart agriculture, it focuses on key industries such as orchids, pineapples, rice, poultry, farming (of milkfish, perch), cows, irrigation water (for precision irrigation). The center devotes itself to smart agricultural production, key technology in terms of digital services, as well as product development and application. Also by linking with the AI technology development, it aims to develop application technologies for agriculture, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry that are oriented towards the needs of the industry. The objective is to facilitate smart agriculture via collaboration among industries, government and academic research organizations.

　　iBase Technology Chairman Lin Chiu-Hsu indicated that the company is dedicated to various smart IoT technologies and applications. By offering solutions ranging from smart manufacturing, smart retail, smart agriculture, to smart medical, they hope to facilitate smart applications among various industries. Well impressed by the professional technology and teaching performance that have been shown by NCYU in agricultural research, he welcomed more diverse cooperation programs in the future so that both will benefit from cooperation opportunities and achieve a win-win situation.