Student testimonial

Supporting internet of things for agro-enterprises

I am from Mexico and I started the Biosystems Engineering master's programme at Wageningen University & Research. Before that, I did a bachelor's in Agro-biotechnology engineering in Mexico. Later, I worked a couple of years in the industry, where I met farmers from different realities, with varying farm sizes, access to markets, capital and education, across my country.

I chose Biosystems Engineering at WUR because of the university’s life sciences orientation

One thing that they —as well as the food industry— had in common, is the need for information to improve their decision making capacities, and the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to contribute to solving a myriad of challenges they continuously face. This experience made me look for options to increase my understanding and skills to apply ICTs in agriculture.

I chose Biosystems Engineering at WUR because of the university’s life sciences orientation and decided to follow the Information Technology master track. Here I learned application-oriented computer science and had the opportunity to work on several academic projects during my coursework. The flexibility of the master's programme lets you choose the courses that are most suitable for your career interests, and I was able to combine Information Technology with Geo-Information Science courses.

The master's programme includes a 36-credit (6-mo) research thesis, which I am currently completing at the Information Technology Group (INF). The INF group offers thesis opportunities in industry and research applications of information systems including agent-based modelling, data management, software engineering and knowledge engineering.

My thesis work is on developing guidelines to support the Internet of Things adoption process in enterprises. Right now I am performing the validation phase of my research with a case study of a company in Mexico. The researchers and professors from the INF group are very active in projects and research networks across Europe aimed to support the digital transformation of agriculture and food. This variety of topics and projects gives you many opportunities to find a thesis topic that meets your interests.

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