Big Data apps for food safety; where are they?

We frequently refer to the highly important role of big data in the agri-food context, food & food safety but which are the big data-powered applications that already exist and serve real needs in this context? Agro-Know recently received a related question through a tweet:

@AgroKnow @WorldBank could you say me wich are the applications of big data for Food, or foodsafety? I´m very interested Thanks

— luis couto (@LuisCouto_Gz) October 26, 2015

The response is surprisingly not easy and a recent blog post by Nikos Manouselis (Agro-Know CEO) also poses the same question: Is there really a substantial purpose for using big data in this context or is this work taking place in the context of academic exercises?

I have described one of the really promising efforts in this context (the collaboration between IBM and Mars Inc.) but if we are looking for something even more publically available, then we should look for alternatives.

If you happen to be aware of any big data-powered apps for food safety, please leave a comment below! :-)

Agro-Know in the EDF 2014

The European Data Forum (EDF) 2014 took place between 19-20 of March 2014 and it was only one of the data-related events that would take place during the 6-month Greek presidency of the EU Council. According to the website of the event, "The European Data Forum (EDF) is an annual meeting place for industry, research, policy makers, and community initiatives to discuss the challenges and opportunities of data in Europe, especially in the light of recent developments such as Open Data, Linked Data and Big Data". This is at the heart of what we are currently working on in AK; we are getting deeper and deeper in the open, linked and big data, always in the agricultural context. This means that there was no way that the AK team would not be represented at the event.

The event was collocated with the Europeana Cloud Plenary, which was attended by my colleagues +Theodore Mathioudakis, +Effie Tsiflidou and +Andreas Drakos who are contributing to this effort. Andreas also helped with the Agro-Know booth that was setup at the EDF2014 and which was full of brochures of Organic.Lingua, as the sponsoring project of this activity, agINFRA and of course Agro-Know ones.

Andreas & Vassilis @ EDF2014
(source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lod2/13433089254/in/set-72157642967653084/)

Even though I did not have the time to actually attend the speeches of the first day of the forum (unfortunately I could not attend the second day - the full programme is available here), I had a great time being there and meeting people who were interested in the AK products; at the same time, I had the time to take a look around and see what the other booths were about, finding interesting people, projects and products. I had the pleasure to meet Karel Charvat again (after the EFITA 2011 Conference), one of the most active persons that I know, actively involved in several initiatives. Among  the other participants, I got engaged in a discussion with Natalia Manola from Athina Research Center, a person actively involved in several data-related projects like DRIVER, OpenAIRE and OpenAIREPlus. Our first meeting was during the RDA 2nd Plenary Meeting in Washington D.C., last September. Last but not least, I had the pleasure to meet Dr. Christopher Brewster from the Aston Business School of the Aston University, UK - we had the opportunity to meet again during the next day at the AK office.

Created with flickr slideshow.

I also got to see +Sarven Capadisli, one of the people I admire for their work in linked data; this was the same case with Deirde Lee from DERI, Ireland, an old time acquaintance from a joint project with GRNET back in 2010. Both of them were engaged in conversations almost during the whole day so I did not find the appropriate time to get to know them better.

Overall it was a really interesting experience which provided us with the opportunity to expose our work to a related and wide audience (yes, the AK booth got busy at some points!) and to get to know interesting people working in similar topics and with whom we could establish collaborations in the near future. Andreas and Elena were there during the 2nd day of the event which was as useful as the first one.

Post-processing EDF2014 (info from the official web site)

• Official photo stream of EDF2014 available on flickR
• Presentations of EDF2014 are being uploaded in our special section
• 1st interviews from EDF2014 available: http://bit.ly/Q0rt48
• Read: Press Release for the Opening of EDF2014 [available in English & Greek]

Intro Course to Big Data / "Introduction to Data Science for Agriculture"

The course "Introduction to Data Science for Agriculture", was held on Friday, November 29th, 2013 at the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications (IIT) of the National Center for Scientific Research (N.C.S.R.) Demokritos, in Athens, Greece. It was the first part of a modular event which also consists of the following parts:

• a Training Day which will be held on Thursday, December 12th, 2013 at the same venue, during which the participants will be trained on the tools and technologies to be used during the Athens Green Hackathon 2013 and
• Athens Green Hackathon 2013, which will take place from Saturday, December 14th, 2013 to Sunday, December 15th, 2013 at the coLab Workspace in Athens, Greece.

You can find more information about the events at the Agro-Know wiki page.

Dr. Vangelis Karkaletsis (NCSR Demokritos)

The course started with an introduction by Dr. Vangelis Karkaletsis, Research Director of IIT of NCSR Demokritos, who provided an overview of the event and the background of IIT, followed by Angeliki Papageorgiou (Agro-Know Technologies, the organizer and contact person for the event) who explained the structure of the modular event and explained all necessary practicalities. The participants (about 35 people) had the opportunity to introduce themselves and explained why they chose to apply for the specific course. I was amazed by the fact that people with so different educational backgrounds were interested in the specific course; starting with agronomists, there were also mathematicians,statisticians, chemists and biologists, as well as web and software developers, ICT specialists and managers. This is exactly the audience that was needed for providing a trans-disciplinary dimension to the issue that we need to address during the hackathon; combining people with expertise in so different domains will surely provide really interesting ideas and outcomes for the hacking!

Angeliki Papageorgiou (Agro-Know Technologies)

Antonis Koukourikos (NCSR Demokritos)

The first presentation came from Antonis Koukourikos (Research Associate of NCSR Demokritos), who provided an interesting introduction to big data and their connection to linked data / semantic web. The case of the POWDER (Protocol for Web Description Resources), a protocol for publishing descriptions of (e.g. metadata about) Web resources using RDF, OWL, and HTTP developed by the IIT team and currently used in the SemaGrow project was also discussed.

Me, presenting the Drivetrain approach

The next presentation was delivered by me and discussed about data products and how they can be designed using a specific approach called "Drivetrain approach", also including a number of application case studies (outside the agricultural sector). My presentation was heavily based on an excellent report titled "Big Data Now" (2012) by O' Reilly, which as an amateur in the field of Big Data found excellent for providing an introduction. Related information can also be found in the O'Reilly web site, in the form of an easy-to-read article.

Designing Data Products from Vassilis Protonotarios

Dr. Charalampos Thanopoulos (AK)

The last presentation of the first day was delivered by my colleague in Agro-Know, Dr. Charalampos Thanopoulos, who discussed the issue of big and open data in agriculture. In addition, he provided a number of cases where data problems in agriculture were addressed with the use of the Drivetrain aproach. His presentation included really interesting data coming from various sources, as well as some nice case-studies of Greek companies activated in the agricultural sector.

After a short lunch break, it was time for the Creativity Workshop (an interactive session) on the development of (big) data products: Using the cases of Apivita and Stevia Hellas (two Greek companies) as a basis, participants were divided in two groups led by Angeliki and Babis respectively and were asked to provide ideas on the development of added value data services for the two companies, focusing on their websites. The session consisted of three parts:

1. Identification of data types and formats which might be useful for each case;
2. Discussion of current issues or ideas for improvement, in the form additional services for the customers of the two companies;
3. Development of one idea per team (each group was divided in teams of 2-3 people), based on the ones already discussed. Design was depicted in A4 papers (initially) and flipchart sheets (at a later stage);
4. Presentation of each team's idea to the participants of the event.

Participants of the Intro Course

During the Creativity Workshop 

Overall, I found it to be a really interesting experience, especially taking into consideration that this was my first presentation on big data. I really enjoyed discussions with participants, who brought fresh ideas and different approaches to the event. It was also really nice to see my colleagues Andreas Drakos (facilitating the interactive session) and Elena Kokoliou (documenting the process and supporting the organization) during the course, as their help and contributions were really valuable. I would also like to highlight the participation of Anne Bruinsma from the Netherlands who made this long trip in order to participate and explore opportunities for affiliation and future collaboration.

Introduction to Data Science for Agriculture

Παρασκευή 29 Νοεμβρίου 2013, 10.00 – 17.00 @

Ινστιτούτο Πληροφορικής και Τηλεπικοινωνιών του Ε.Κ.Ε.Φ.Ε. Δημόκριτος

(Πατριάρχου Γρηγορίου & Νεαπόλεως, 153 10 Αγία Παρασκευή)

Είσαι ερευνητής θετικών επιστημών στον τομέα της φυσικής, της χημείας, της γεωπονίας, της βιολογίας, των μαθηματικών, ή της στατιστικής; Ασχολείσαι με την ανάλυση πειραματικών δεδομένων και το σχηματισμό υποθέσεων ή εμπλέκεσαι σε εφαρμογές τεχνητής νοημοσύνης;

Κάνε το πρώτο βήμα για να διεκδικήσεις ένα από τα χρηματικά έπαθλα του Athens Green Hackathon 2013 λαμβάνοντας μέρος την Παρασκευή 29 Νοεμβρίου 2013 στο Course: “Introduction to Data Science for Agriculture”, εμπλούτισε τις γνώσεις σου στην επιστήμη των δεδομένων (Data Science) σχετικά με την ανάλυση και την αξιοποίηση των ανοιχτών δεδομένων (Open Data) και σκέψου μια ιδέα που θα αναπτύξεις σε τεχνολογική εφαρμογή κατά τη διάρκεια του Athens Green Hackathon (14 & 15 Δεκεμβρίου @ CoLab Workspace)!

Το course διοργανώνεται από την εταιρεία καινοτόμων τεχνολογικών εφαρμογών Agro-Know Technologies σε συνεργασία με το Ινστιτούτο Πληροφορικής και Τηλεπικοινωνιών του Ε.Κ.Ε.Φ.Ε. ΔΗΜΟΚΡΙΤΟΣ στις 29 Νοεμβρίου 2013 από τις 10.00 έως τις 17.00 το απόγευμα και θα φιλοξενηθεί στην Αίθουσα Διαλέξεων του Ινστιτούτου Πληροφορικής και Τηλεπικοινωνιών στην Αγία Παρασκευή!

Η εκδήλωση χρηματοδοτείται από τα ερευνητικά έργα agINFRA (“A data infrastructure for agriculture”) και SemaGrow (“Data Intensive Techniques to Boost the Real-Time Performance of Global Agriculture Data Infrastructures”) υπό το 7^ο Πρόγραμμα Πλαίσιο της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης.

Η συμμετοχή στο course είναι δωρεάν! Υπάρχει όμως περιορισμός στις διαθέσιμες θέσεις, συνεπώς είναι απαραίτητη η δήλωση συμμετοχής έως και την Τετάρτη 27 Νοεμβρίου 2013 στο link: http://goo.gl/o8a5jw

Για περισσότερες πληροφορίες, ακολούθησε το link: http://goo.gl/57RUco

Agenda

Session 1: “Intro to Big Data”
Session 2: “A beginners'/ Non-experts' & Intro to Big Data”
Session 3: “Designing Data Products”
Session 4: “Data Problems & Products in Agriculture”
Session 5: “Hands-on Design of a Data Product”