CONCENTRATION AREAS

Last Updated: 11 September 2023

The following are the Areas of Concentration, Research Lines and Research Projects of the Postgraduate Program of FEAGRI.

Below, in the attachments, you will find a detailed description of all the Research Projects and their respective responsible persons.

Check here the teachers' contact

Concentration Area: AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY (AA)

Research Line: MACHINERY DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND OPTIMIZATION

Description: Search for technical engineering solutions to problems of mechanization and automation of field work or those involving agricultural products, studies of machine-plant-soil interaction, handling and transport of agricultural products and optimization of mechanized systems.

Research Projects:

Ergonomics applied to engineering design
Design of agricultural machinery applied to family farming
Physical properties of biological materials
Agricultural robotics
Use of optical and interferometric techniques
Embedded control and automation systems in agricultural machinery
Performance evaluation and selection of agricultural machinery
Computational modeling and simulation of agricultural machinery and implements

Concentration Area: RURAL BUILDINGS AND AMBIENCE (AG) (link)

Research Line: AMBIENCE IN AGRICULTURAL FACILITIES

Description: Addressing environmental aspects of animal and plant production facilities, taking into account production systems, housing conditions, characteristics and purpose of buildings, modeling, simulation, control and automation of internal space and conditions of pollutants and noise.

Research Project:

Ambience in industrial swine production
Evaluation of the influence of heat on milk production
Environmental study for broilers
Plant Ambience

Research Line: RURAL ENERGIZATION

Description: Conventional and renewable sources and alternative technologies aimed at the sustainable development of rural areas by providing energy from local resources at low cost. Assessment, application, conservation and rational use of electric energy.

Research Project:

Pyrolysis of vegetable biomass
Use of electricity in agricultural activities and processes
Small-scale power generation through renewable energy sources in rural areas

Research Line: TECHNOLOGY AND BUILDING MATERIALS

Description: Development, assessment and application of conventional materials and new materials from the use of agroindustrial waste or transformation and composition with other materials. Infrastructure and foundation works.

Research Project:

Analysis of the behavior of foundations in tropical soils
Evaluation of wood-based products
Analysis of the behavior of materials and shapes of agricultural greenhouses

Concentration Area: WATER AND SOIL (AC) (link)

Research Line: MANAGEMENT, TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF WATER AND WASTE

Description: Wastewater treatment; integrated management of agricultural and agroindustrial waste; biological waste stabilization processes. Use of waste on agricultural soils, pollution control and environmental sanitation. Water treatment.

Research Project:

Anaerobic digestion of wastewater
Appropriate water treatment and use systems
Project to impact water quality on food quality
Simplified systems for treatment and use of liquid waste from agricultural production and rural areas
Wastewater treatment, disposal and reuse

Research Line: STUDIES OF THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND AGRICULTURAL AREAS EMPLOYING GEOTECHNOLOGIES, REMOTE SENSING, AND PROXIMAL SENSING OF SOILS AND PLANTS

Description: Land use planning and land assessment. Modeling and interpretation of accelerated soil erosion. Linear and non-linear methods for predicting edaphic attributes. Study and validation of pedotransfer functions. Methods for characterizing spatial and temporal variability of soil attributes applied to digital soil mapping and localized crop management.

Research Project:

diagnosis of land use and soil degradation by accelerated erosion
methods for scaling and studying linear and non-linear variability in soils and digital soil mapping

Research Line: WATER RESOURCES PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

Description: Water resources management; conditioning factors of water management. Identification and quantification of flows; management; characterization of water quality in watersheds. Impacts of plant protection products on water quality.

Research Project:

Impact of pesticides and nutrients on water quality in watersheds

Research Line: SOIL PLANNING, MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY

Description: Conservation planning; assessment of soil quality for agricultural production; development of soil quality indicators for agricultural production; soil degradation processes with emphasis on compaction and erosion; methods for soil recovery in degraded areas; agricultural management systems; no-tillage system.

Research Project:

Experimental and theoretical study of soil quality indicators affected by management in agricultural production systems
Quality of agricultural soils
Effect of agricultural machinery traffic on soil compaction

Research Line: PRODUCTION OF BIOENERGY FROM AGROINDUSTRIAL WASTE

Description: Bioenergetic products; production of biofuels; production of biopolymers; production of metabolites with added value; biological processing of waste to obtain energy products, biorefineries, anaerobic processes.

Research Project:

Biorefineries in the reuse of agricultural waste
Production of microalgae under mixotrophic conditions to obtain bio-energetic products

Research Line: IRRIGATION ENGINEERING

Description: Assessment and development of irrigation systems and equipment; principles of design, operation and performance evaluation; system maintenance strategies.

Research Project:

Strategies for extending the life and improving the performance of localized irrigation systems
Techniques and technologies applied to soilless cultivation system in a protected environment

Concentration Area: POST-HARVEST TECHNOLOGY (AF) (link)

Research Line: CONSERVATION AND MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Description: Physical properties of biological products; processing; assessment of product quality by non-destructive methods; storage, distribution and transport techniques; packaging; mathematical modeling and numerical simulation; management and marketing.

Research Project:

Post-harvest ripening of perishable products
Development of minimally processed products
Development of technology for the pre-processing of agricultural products
Development and evaluation of technologies for the conservation and marketing of agricultural products
Use of agricultural by-products

Research Line: DRYING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS

Description: Obtaining low water activity using perishable and deteriorated products, aromatic and medicinal plants. Assessment and maintenance of the quality of products during drying; assessment of drying equipment and techniques; mathematical modeling and numerical simulation.

Research Project:

Development and evaluation of agroindustrial equipment, technologies and plants
Osmotic dehydration of fruits and vegetables
Processing and use of inulin
Drying of perishable products

Research Line: IMAGE ANALYSIS APPLIED TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND FOOD

Description: This project covers emerging non-destructive techniques for analysis and classification of agricultural products and food. Image analysis for simulation of agricultural processes. Representation of thermal, mechanical and biochemical injuries for the study of quality losses in agricultural product processing.

Research Project:

Biospeckle applied to agricultural products and food
Image processing

Concentration Area: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (AI) (link)

Research Line: SOCIOECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Description: This line includes socioeconomic and environmental studies from the perspective of the sustainability of agriculture in its different dimensions. It addresses this issue with views on family farming, including rural settlements, quilombolas and other communities in the rural world. In this way, the research of this line covers the issues of strategies of social reproduction, agroecology, sovereignty and food security, as well as analyses and proposals of agrarian, agricultural and environmental public policies.

Research Project:

The dynamics of rural workers settlements and their effects on the social and physical space
Agroecology, family farming and sustainable rural development
Organization and ergonomic analysis of work
Agricultural and environmental policies

Research Line: GEOTECHNOLOGIES APPLIED TO MONITORING AGRICULTURAL AREAS AND HARVESTS FORECASTING

Description: Development of techniques and methodologies for monitoring Agricultural Areas and for estimates of agricultural harvests, based on advanced information and geoprocessing systems.

Research Project:

Remote sensing and geoprocessing applied to the monitoring of agricultural areas
Agricultural zoning aimed at assessing the climate suitability of cultures and crop harvests forecasting

Research Line: SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE

Description: This line of research includes research projects applied to the management of organizations that are part of agroindustrial chains—industries of inputs and machinery, family and business agricultural production units, agroindustries and wholesale and retail distribution and trade companies, as well as public and private agencies that support the chains. Projects involve related topics: application development based on intelligent systems and data mining; the application of geotechnologies for monitoring and harvests forecasting; the application of quality tools with a view to improving production processes; the application of design ergonomics for the design of tools, equipment and jobs; strategic and financial analysis of organizations and chains; to the study and application of project management techniques and tools; the application of techniques for assessing environmental impacts of the production process and the development of environmental management systems; the use of remote sensing and mathematical modeling to assess the agricultural suitability of crops and their zoning agroindustrial logistics and agricultural marketing.

Research Project:

Activity ergonomics
Conception ergonomics
Studies and definition of strategies and finances in the agroindustrial chain
Environmental and sustainability management
Process and quality improvement
Monitoring and forecasting of agricultural crops
Agroindustrial logistics and marketing
Planning and environmental management

Concentration Area: NON-DESTRUCTIVE METHODS APPLIED TO MATERIALS, STRUCTURES AND TREES (AJ) (link)

Research Line: CHARACTERIZATION AND PERFORMANCE OF MATERIALS

Description: Applications of non-destructive technologies in the determination of the properties of materials, in material assessments regarding performance and in the search for new methodologies that can be applied in a simpler and more precise way in the characterization of materials.

Research Project:

Characterization of materials by wave propagation techniques

Research Line: CLASSIFICATION OF MATERIALS AND TREES

Description: Applications of non-destructive technologies in the classification of materials aiming at more rational applications of them. Application of non-destructive techniques in the classification of wood from tree tests, aiming at anticipating the knowledge of properties to optimize processing expenses, greater recovery and better disposal and utilization of this material. Study and proposition of new methodologies and classification techniques.

Research Project:

Classification of materials by non-destructive techniques
Tree classification

Research Line: INSPECTION OF STRUCTURES AND TREES

Description: Applications of non-destructive techniques, in isolation and jointly, aiming to inspect in-service structures and forest and urban trees in search of knowledge about residual resistance and deterioration condition. Study and proposition of new inspection methodologies.

Research Project:

Structures inspection
Tree inspection

CONCENTRATION AREA: DIGITAL AGRICULTURE (AK) (link)

Research Line: PRECISION AGRICULTURE

Description: It seeks the development of technological solutions for analysis, treatment and management of spatial and temporal variability present in agricultural crops, as well as the assessment and improvement of techniques, equipment, processes and systems for Brazilian agriculture in order to improve the efficiency in the use of resources, productivity, quality, profitability and sustainability of agricultural production.

Research Project:

Proximal sensing of soil and plant
Spatialized sampling of production factors and the use of geostatistics
Computational modeling of complex systems in agriculture
Models, algorithms and computational systems for big data management

Research Line: SUSTAINABLE PRECISION ANIMAL SCIENCE

Description: It seeks to apply the high potential of new ICT technologies in livestock production, aiming at continuous automated monitoring of production animals developing control systems that improve the environment, management and the need for animal welfare in real time, resulting in better health, better productivity, well-being and reducing emissions.

Research Project:

Digital technologies for environmental control of animal production
Computational modeling of environmental projects for facilities in animal production

Research Line: INTERNET OF THINGS IN AGRICULTURE

Description: IoT descriptions are the result of advances in the areas of interrelated computing devices between mechanical and digital agents through sensors, media, actuators, internet access and auxiliary technologies. Cost reductions and increased availability of these technologies allow the development, application and improvements in various areas, such as agricultural production, in the open field and in a protected environment, monitoring and control of post-harvest processes, among others.

Research Project:

IoT Elements Applied in Protected Environments for Plant Production
IoT Elements in The Development of Robotic Computing Devices for Agriculture

Research Line: DATA SCIENCE

Description: It seeks the development of solutions that involve data analysis through the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques, especially Machine Learning and Deep Learning techniques aimed at building models that assist in the Decision-Making process. The projects of this Research Line address the construction of predictive and prescriptive models from structured data, as well as the construction of models using images.

Research Project:

Predictive and Prescriptive Modeling
Computer Vision

Research Line: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE APPLIED TO GEOINFORMATION

Description: It aims to manage/process large volume of data (Big data) using artificial intelligence in the context of agricultural monitoring. Whether in mapping the dynamics of land change use, in the estimation of harvest or in processes related to these purposes.

Research Project:

Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing for Agricultural Monitoring

Research Line: AGROINDUSTRY 4.0: Production chains and sustainability

Description: To address the production chains and agroindustrial processes, from the field to the marketing, with the application of techniques and tools, within the framework of the Digital Agribusiness.

Research Project: