Labs and Workshops of Agricultural Engineering

Objectives

1.    Transfer and apply modern engineering technologies by using the concept of reverse engineering.

2.    Design and Manufacturing new machines more convenient for all Egyptian farms

3.    Provide new techniques for farm buildings and their environmental control

4.    Provide the government or whom it concerns all the required information about the current heuristic of water and field parameters at any site of the whole country which converts the decision support system to be knowledge-based instead of experience.

5.    Aids the government for the selection of suitable sites for different farming.

6.    Acquired data aids the scientists to adequately diagnose the problems and provide solutions in real-time.

7.    Can connect universities with the local community (fish farmers) with decision-makers to work coherently side by side to maximize the utilization of water resources in aquaculture. 

8.    Provide annual, monthly or daily technical reports about water waste locations to build a suitable ecosystem for integral use of water.

The organization, management, and infrastructure of the labs and the workshops of the Agricultural Engineering Department

 Internal (inter-disciplinary) cooperation and network structures as well as the administrative structures of the proposed agricultural engineering lab are as follow:

Infrastructure

Kafrelshiekh University has provided the Department of Agricultural Engineering at Faculty of Agriculture with a building of agricultural engineering laboratories and workshops with two floors; the first floor consists of two laboratories and two workshops, the second floor consists of two lecture halls, instrument storage room and two administration rooms. The building has an area of 350m². The two labs and workshops were adequately constructed according to standard laboratories regulations  

The administrative structure of the proposed lab consists of two teams

1.    Administrative team

a.    Lab director

b.    Deputy director

c.    National coordinator for smart grid interoperability

d.    Chief of applied economics office

2.    Executive team

1. Chief of intelligent system division

The intelligent system division aims to rapid re-tasking of intelligent and automation technologies for smart management and cyber-physical systems applications; Enable real-time monitoring, control, and performance optimization of smart manufacturing systems on farms; in the factories and cost-effective production.

2. Chief of materials and structural division

The materials and structural division aims to determine the suitable engineering materials for the manufacture of agricultural equipment and agricultural production units and lines as well as those used in agricultural construction such as greenhouses, poultry farms, animal and fish production

3. Chief of water quality, energy and environment division

 Develops measurement science, predictive models, and performance metrics to improve the energy efficiency of watering systems, reduce building related hazard substances emission through the integration of information, communications, sensing, and automation technologies.

4. Chief of systems integration division

The division promotes Egyptian industrial competitiveness in areas of critical national priority by anticipating and meeting the agricultural production mechanization needs for integrating engineering information systems used in manufacturing, construction, and cyber-physical systems in ways that enhance economic prosperity and improve the quality of life. This division will be implemented with advanced engineering programs such as ANSYS FLUENT, MATLAB, LABVIEW for engineering design simulation and performance prediction.

Strategic cooperation

The synergy and structural added value, as well as the institutional long-term effect the strategic cooperation is expected to have:

1. Knowledge and experience exchange among the academic stuffs as well as students
2. Sharing the ideas and solutions for the scientific problems related to the local communities
3. All existing participants will benefit from the experiences generated by the lab and work to provide the opportunity to transfer these experiences to the outside community. 

The Long-term effect

1. Support to build a Center for Water and Agricultural Information and Decision Making Support (AIDMS)
2. The cooperation will help to introduce and build optimum production systems that are running automatically, ecofriendly and efficient energy use for animal, poultry and fish producers
3. Cooperate with other laboratories to provide the solutions of agricultural production and food process problems
4. Provide the farmers the opportunity to participate by monthly fees for managing and monitoring of their farms, factories and any agricultural production plant in a scientific manner through the center of Agricultural Information and Decision Making Support (AIDMS) at the University which raises the investment and net profits in a safe manner in this sector in Egypt, that leads to raise productivity by 50% and reduce the level of production risks to the lowest levels. This system works very accurately in real time and can be applied at the level of the Republic.
5. Develop new operating units meets the requirements inside the food processing plants
6. Aid the graduated and under-graduated students to develop innovative graduation projects
7. Manufacture new prototypes of farm irrigation machinery and water supply networks suitable to the farms located at Kafr El- Shaikh district.