Hackathon Agro winners visit Harper Adams

The three winners of the Hackathon AGRO, an annual competition run at Uruguay's Expo Prado, have visited Harper Adams University as part of their winners' trip to the UK.

During their visit Manuel Lorenzo y Losada, Joao Antonio Martins and Emilio Saturi learnt about the entomology facilities and research being undertaken with Dr Tom Pope, the Hands Free Hectare (HFHa) project with Kit Franklin, robotics with Sam Wane, drones for farming with Jonathan Gill, the traffic and tillage project with David White along with tours of the campus (with Mitch Cook) and CERC (with Grace Milburn).

Manuel said: "My experience at Harper Adams University was amazing. We met many lecturers and professors that do amazing research and staying in the campus providing us the oportunity to meet some students and have a cultural exchange."

Joao said: "My experience at Harper Adams was outstanding. I loved seeing and learning about the latest technologies that, surely, will change the future of the agri sector. 

"I am very thankful to all the staff for sharing their experiences with us."

Leticia Chico-Santamarta, Coordinator for the Latin America and Caribbean Partnerships: "'It is a great pleasure for Harper Adams to be part of Hackathon AGRO. It's a fantastic and challenging event where participants from the agricultural, business and information technologies sectors meet to solve different agronomy problems in Uruguay by using different technologies. 

"We are delighted to receive the winners at the university year after year where we can show them all the research and commencial projects that is being done by our staff."

Prior to arriving at the university, the team had visited London and attended the Agri-Tech East REAP Conference in Cambridge.

To learn more about the comptition and to read the winners' profiles, click here.