The work carried out at our chair is concerned with software and systems engineering in the field of digital farming. For this purpose, we consider systems along the entire value chain. Our location in Rhineland-Palatinate offers an excellent basis due to the versatile coverage of different areas, such as wine, vegetable and grain cultivation, but also the immediate proximity to research and industry.

Interested students looking for theses and projects are always welcome to contact us to discuss interests and possible topics.

Our research focus:

• Software and systems engineering in the field of digital farming
• Requirements engineering of the different actors in the agricultural ecosystem
• Improvement of interoperability and networking between actors and systems
• Improvement of the acceptance of digital farming solutions (e.g. FMIS, decision support systems, agricultural machinery)

Overview:

Digital Farming solutions, such as precision agriculture technologies, crop management software, soil irrigation systems, have the potential to increase agricultural productivity, reduce costs, and improve sustainability. However, the adoption of these technologies by farmers has been slow. One reason for this could be missing explainability how these systems come to decisions. The opaque nature of these models limits the farmer's understanding of the technology and their ability to trust the system.

The goal of this study is:

• To identify the key factors that influence farmers' acceptance of Digital Farming solutions.
• To explore the role explainability plays in user acceptance.
• Investigate how explainability is integrated in other domains (e.g. medical, finance).
• Provide recommendations for the development of explainable Digital Farming solutions in agriculture.

Methodologies:

• Online literature review
• Surveys and interviews to measure the relationship between explainability, user understanding, trust, and acceptance

Contact :

Mengisti Berihu

The theses presented here are suggested and supported by Friends of Digital Farming e.V. (link). The theses are partly supervised at our chair and partly at other departments. If you are interested, we will be happy to clarify whether individual topics are still available. Some of the topics can also be worked on in another format (e.g. bachelor thesis or project) after consultation.

Strikethrough topics have been or are currently being worked on.

Brief overview:

1. Online catalog for support measures for the preservation of biodiversity
2. Digital Farming as a support for the cultivation of emmer
3. Biodiversity certificates in digital farming
4. Expansion of ecosystems in agriculture
5. Market potential of education and training in Digital Farming
6. New technologies to increase yields in Digital Farming
7. Opportunities for automated documentation of work steps along the value chain
8. Claim and reality: a gap analysis of IT-based tools for assessing sustainability in the agri-food value chain
9. Analysis of existing herd management systems for dairy cattle
10. Interoperability and data exchange between digital systems in agriculture using the example of malting barley (incl. beer production)

A more detailed description of the topics is available here: PDF

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested.