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▲ Professor Junghoon Lee (left), Seoul National University, November 2,
Industry-Academy Collaboration EXPO Grand Prize Award (R)

 

The world's first high-tech techniques have been successfully applied to the cultivation of agricultural food production facilities.

 

On November 16, TeloFarm Co. Ltd., founded by Professor Junghoon Lee of the Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering Department of Seoul National University, announced on November 16 that he had been awarded the Grand Prize (Chairman of the Research Foundation Award) at the 2017 university creative asset investment promotion seminar.

 

TeloFarm, founded by Professor Lee, was launched as a subsidiary of Seoul National University Technology Holding Corporation on February 21, and is supported by the Small and Medium Business Venture Department's Tech incubation program for startup (TIPS) Program. It has successfully commercialized the agricultural sensor in about six months after its establishment and is already in the process of delivering it. It was awarded the Grand Prize at the Ministry of Education Investment Promotion Seminar in recognition of the scalability and progressiveness of this technology and the rationality of the business plan.

 

TeloFarm's agricultural sensor mass production process was developed by Seoul National University Semiconductor Joint Research Institute. After inserting a thin micro-probe sensor like a hair on the stem of a plant, the flow rate of the water tube inside the plant and the concentration of the nutrient solution are measured. Based on this, water and fertilizer supply are controlled to effectively minimize the drainage.

 

According to Professor Lee, about 30 hectares of water and fertilizer nutrients are needed when growing tomatoes on an area of about one hectare. When using the method of watering by measuring the sunlight of advanced farmers in the Netherlands, about 10 tons of nutrient solution is abandoned, while the use of TeloFarm technology can keep the drainage close to 0% without lack of water.

 

TeloFarm's technology was born with the support of the Rural Development Administration and the Urban Agriculture Research Institute after technology transfer from SNU. This technology has been validated by the RDA and various farmers through the application of MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems) advanced technology.

 

Recently, the Urban Agricultural Research Institute of Gwanak City applied this technology to tomato hydroponics to increase productivity and quality, and to minimize the amount of agricultural wastewater drainage. It is the first in the world to be successful over two generations, opening up a new chapter in urban agriculture as well as various house facilities agriculture, forest resource management, and extreme agriculture.

The technology is planned to enter the UAE, Vietnam, China, Russia and other countries with extreme climatic conditions with the support of the venture business support project of SME venture department.

 

Professor Lee said, "Korea's IT technology is the best in the world. Now, through cooperation with agricultural technology that has wisdom of our ancestors, there has been an opportunity of thousands of years for our country to become a new frontier to lead the future of humanity. This work has been made possible by comprehensive and reasonable support from RDA, SNU Technology Holding Company, Gwanak-gu, and Seoul City, and the mecca of technology that humanity migrates to future Marshall has the aspiration to become urban agriculture in Seoul, Korea "He said.

 

Professor Lee Jung Hoon has been a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Seoul National University since 2004. He is the first person in the world to develop smart farm technology using MEMS advanced technology and to be called "Steve Jobs" of future high-tech agriculture.

 

[Related articles]

           

▲ Cultivation of crops at the Gwanak-gu Urban Agricultural Research Institute

 

▲Microprobe sensor measuring the nutrient flow rate in tomato stem

 

[Contact information]

Seoul National University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

 Professor Junghoon Lee / 02-880-9104 / jleenano@snu.ac.kr

Department of Foreign Affairs, Seoul National University Team Manager

 Dong Ha Lee  / 02-880-9148 / lee496@snu.ac.kr

 

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