WEBINAR: The Future of Fruit Quality Assessment with NIRS & Artificial Neural Networks: Expert Spotlight with Professor Kerry Walsh and Nicholas Anderson

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This Expert Spotlight webinar, featuring Kerry Walsh and Nic Anderson of Central Queensland University, will take a deep dive into the current and future landscape of chemometric modeling in fruit with artificial neural networks and AI.

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This discussion will include:

• How artificial neural network (ANN) models work
• Modeling with ANN using real-world mango data from the Australian Mango Industry Association
• Which variables to pay attention to
• Understanding the effects of optical geometry
• Accounting for variations in fruit and attributes
• Model building considerations
• Choosing the right reference method
• Approaches to model transfer between devices
• Q&A with the experts

Meet Our Presenters

Professor Kerry Walsh

Kerry undertook his Bachelor of Science at the University of Queensland, Australia, followed by a Masters and PhD at Queens University, Canada, with an academic career based primarily at Central Queensland University . His formal training was in plant physiology, with a research focus on instrumentation. During his postgraduate years, this involved instrumentation around legume root gas exchange.

In the late 1990s he switched focus from N2 fixation to assessment of plant carbohydrate status, and in particular, fruit quality using near infrared spectroscopy. This work was implemented on-line, into Colour Vision Systems and later MAF sorting equipment. Realizing the limitation of assessment after harvest incentivised his work on a handheld format, seen now in the Felix units. His group provides support to the Australia fleet of portable NIR units used in assessment of fruit quality, particularly for mango. In recent years the group has moved into machine vision, providing in-field estimation of fruit number, in addition to the harvest timing prediction provided by portable near infrared spectroscopy.

Nicholas Anderson, PhD Student

Nicholas holds a Masters by Research and is currently in his last year of his PhD – Crop Forecasting at Central Queensland University, Australia.

Originally from Canada, Nic came to visit Australia on a Working Holiday Visa in 2013 and worked in Katherine, NT for several mango seasons. Since then, Nic has formally trained in NIR via his Masters, PhD, and a certificate for Fundamentals and Applications of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (University of Córdoba).

He currently consults for Felix Instruments and the Australian Mango Industry Association (AMIA) for model development and model transfer between instruments. He has performed experiments on mango orchards from Darwin to Childers and has also worked as a research scientist for CarbonLink for measurement of soil carbon with NIRS.