Digital Management of Agriculture and Mountain Areas LM73

Developments in sensor technology, artificial intelligence, automation, tracking and robotics are
revolutionizing manufacturing systems and this revolution is expected to accelerate in the coming years by implementing digital management of agriculture and of mountain areas.
The acquisition of data through sensors and digital technologies makes low-cost and high-detail analytical
procedures available, increasing the data available and usable for the timely planning and improvement of agro-zootechnical activities in general and of the peculiar activities of management, preservation and conservation of mountain territories.
The sustainability of agricultural production and, more generally, of activities in the mountain environment,
is highly dependent on the correct contribution of inputs into the processes and, from this point of view, the introduction of digital tools to support decisions and associated modern technologies are becoming more and more essential. This concept is fully part of the setting of the first mission of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (which “aims to give a decisive boost to the relaunch of the competitiveness and productivity of the country system”) and of the second mission of the same (which aims at “a radical ecological transition towards complete climate neutrality and sustainable environmental development to mitigate threats to natural and human systems”).
The availability of a large amount of data in the projection of time series (big data) will allow on the one
hand the selection of more appropriate and effective measures to be introduced for the improvement of
agricultural production in terms of quantity and / or quality, for the reduction of costs and environmental
impact (soil, water, atmosphere), on livestock farms (improvement of animal welfare, increase in productive and reproductive efficiency) on humans (safety, attractiveness of work towards the agricultural sector and / or mountain territory); on the other hand the preparation of innovative tools suitable for an efficient, modern and sustainable management of the mountain territory capable of facing and solving future challenges.
The figure to be trained is a technician who knows how to introduce and apply new technologies, especially digital, precision, “smart”, in the management of the farm or the territory (with particular reference to the mountain one), or a “data scientist and / or data analyst “who knows the machines and software available, the predictive and implementation models available and, based on the needs of the farm or mountain area, knows how to choose and implement them as efficiently as possible. Considering its inter-class character, the master’s degree program will aim to train not a traditional agronomist, but an agronomist who knows how to interface with the world of new digital technologies and with professionals who develop software, sensors, innovative startups and technological services for agriculture, etc. This professional figure will be able to provide the engineering professions with the agronomic and zootechnical information necessary for
the design of new technologies for agriculture and livestock. To apply these technologies efficiently, the trained figure will have to know, in addition to the more purely digital-engineering bases, the aspects related to the physiology and needs of organisms, agricultural crops, livestock farms and agroecosystems in general. The professional figure to be trained will have, as a fundamental requirement, the ability to use digital tools that are increasingly widespread today.
Graduates in Digital Management of Agriculture and Mountain Areas must know the functioning of the agroecosystem as a whole and interpret the data observed and obtained also through new technologies (from remote sensing, to proximal sensors, to sensors applied in farming, etc.). Students will follow a course aimed at deepening the study of natural and agricultural ecosystems through the application of modern digital technologies to ecophysiology and plant genetics as well as introducing the digitization of systems for environmental monitoring, energy sources and management of tourism.

Graduates must be able to:

• carry out a mapping of the technologies (intelligent, digital) available, also in terms of adoptability, effects, risks, etc.
• assess digital transitions and drivers of change towards greater resilience that can deliver more public goods and ecosystem services, including the creation of jobs to improve social inclusion;
• interpreting the data and relating them to the biological realities of natural and artificial ecosystems to better manage them and select the most productive and sustainable variants.