Professor Terry Bossomaier

Early Warning of Coffee Rust through Hyperspectral Imaging

Abstract

Coffee rust is a devastating fungal outbreak, which can wreak havoc on coffee crops. It wiped out almost all the Arabica coffee in Indonesia a century ago, and occurs in Papua New Guinea. It has not reached Australia, which grows coffee on the Atherton Tablelands, and is classified by Customs and Quarantine as a biohazard. Thus early detection of outbreaks is crucially important, to one of the world's largest commodities. This project will investigate distinctive hyperspectral signatures of coffee rust. However, HSI cameras are expensive, perhaps too expensive for mass surveillance. A promising alternative is dimensionality reduction and synthesis of new sensor chip masks to go into prosumer digital cameras, which can be used in cheap aerial drones. The rust imagery will be collected in Papua New Guinea and Brazil.

Biography

Terry Bossomaier is Strategic Research Professor in the Faculty of Business, with wide ranging research interests. He has published six major books and numerous articles in journals including top journals such as Science. His current work extends from image science to the statistical physics of tipping points, with simulation as a major research methodology.