Students Patric and Timo – second year students Smart Technology – have faced a nice challenge. They are part of a group of students who work on a model on ‘Vertical Farming’. A couple of months earlier two other students designed and built a first version of a four levels mini-greenhouse. Patrick and Timo had the honour to equip the mini-greenhouse with the required control systems and sensor technologies. To facilitate an optimal growth of plants many aspects have to be taken in to account like lighting, air quality, humidity and sufficient CO2. Timo: ‘it was quite a tough assignment because you need to consider many different things at the same time. Fortunately we could rely on our teacher who helped us to make a good start and stay on track. It was very nice to work on something which will in the future become very important for the world’s food supply. I already have some relevant knowledge about vertical farming now’. Soon the project will be handed over to a next student duo who will continue adding other essential parts to the vertical farming model, like the valves, the irrigation system and the database. Once the model is finished the technical information and accompanying teaching materials will be made freely available for other VET schools via the EduTrans products database (on our project website edutrans-project.eu).
