Written by editor on 5th November 2019.

McHale Engineering and NUI Galway:

The NUI Galway Agricultural Machinery Research Group and McHale Engineering are looking to host a Career-Fit Plus Research Fellow. This partnership have successfully obtained career-fit funding in the past.

Project Outline:

The project will focus on developing sensor solutions and accompanying machine learning models to optimise the efficiency and driving practices of harvest machinery. A variety of implements are used in collecting grass silage in Northern Europe. These implements are generally used with a tractor with high horsepower engines, consuming significant amounts of fuel. Fuel economy and time constraints are significant factors for a machinery operator and owners during the harvest season.

Research will aim to provide proven machine learning models to optimise driving patterns and fuel economy in a constrained environment. The research must balance crop yield, feed quality, driver well-being and machinery lifespan.

A fellow will have access to a significant dataset of already collected data and asked to contribute towards sensing solutions on state-of-the art prototype machinery.

Desirable Skills:

A PhD in electronic engineering, computer science, agricultural engineering or a related discipline;
Software expertise for rapid prototyping (Python, R);
Background in developing machine learning models for IOT sensor applications;
Experience with NoSQL databases or managing large datasets;
The candidate must fulfil the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions mobility requirements [1].
McHale Engineering:

McHale is now the largest producer of Agricultural Machinery in Ireland. The company is recognised for bringing innovative, high output, heavy duty agricultural solutions to the market place [2]. The McHale Group of Companies has experienced strong growth over the last decade. In the last 6 years the business has doubled its turnover and their products are sold into over 55 countries around the world.

Agricultural Machinery Research Group:

The Group specialise in applying IOT sensor solutions for operations for agricultural machinery in challenging environments. The group hosts expertise in Digital Signal Processing, Machine Vision, Machine Learning and data analytics. The group reside in the National University of Ireland, Galway. The group has a strong publication record and has close ties to automotive and agricultural technology firms. The city of Galway is placed at number four in Lonely Planet’s Top Ten cities of 2020 [3].

Contact dallan.byrne@nuigalway.ie for more information.

[1]Career-FIT-PLUS, 2019, Guide for Applicants,
[2] McHale Engineering, 2019, McHale Homepage URL: http://www.mchale.net/
[3] Lonely Planet, 2019, Best in Travel 2020, URL: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/best-in-travel/cities