2nd Annual P2IRC Symposium Provides Opportunities to Share and Learn

The 2nd Annual P2IRC Symposium: Designing Crops for Global Food Security, took place June 20-22, 2017, at the Delta Bessborough in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The event was hosted by the Global Institute for Food Security.

The 2nd Annual P2IRC Symposium was a highly successful multidisciplinary event, attracting nearly 300 participants from at least six countries including senior researchers, members of our International Scientific Advisory Committee, about 100 students, and more than 30 delegates and colleagues representing industry and producer groups.

The Symposium program was transdisciplinary, one of the hallmarks of P2IRC itself, and focused on “cross-pollination.” It provided an opportunity for P2IRC researchers to report on exciting progress made this past year and to identify, through keynote presentations and panel presentations involving researchers from other institutions and industry, the challenges we are facing in digital plant phenotyping as we plan for the next five years of investment. The third day of the Symposium featured a workshop on developing common data standards to foster more effective international collaboration among researchers. Delegates enjoyed an evening “Flavour of the Prairies Market Stroll” at the nearby Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. The Symposium program is available here.

Student Poster Competition

The Symposium also highlighted the work of enthusiastic and talented students through a poster competition. More than 50 posters were entered.

An international judging panel awarded the first-place $500 prize to Connor Burbridge, Yan Yan, and Anthony Kusalik for their poster, “Comparison of Genome-Wide Association Results with Varied p-Value Thresholds and Input Data Quality.” The second-place prize of $250 was awarded to Javier Garcia Gonzalez, Ian Stavness, and Kevin Stanley for their poster, “Canola Flower Detection and Growth Analysis on Outdoor Environments Using Time-Lapse Cameras.” Symposium attendees voted for the “People’s Choice Award,” and a $250 cash prize was awarded to Lujie Duan and Nadeem Jamali for their poster, “Using Deep Learning with Nonlinear Synapses for Processing Plant Phenotyping Data.”

The Global Institute for Food Security looks forward to hosting the 3rd Annual P2IRC Symposium in 2018. Please check back here for the dates.

For more information about the Symposium or P2IRC please contact us at gifs-p2irc@usask.ca.