From Seed to Cup
- Project timeframe
- 1 January 2022 - 31 December 2026
- Research area
- Responsible Design
- Amount awarded
- £558,676
- Funder ID
- FAPESP
Project leader: Dr André Pimenta Freire
Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of coffee, which is one of the most important sources of income for the Brazilian economy.
Currently, the coffee agribusiness encompasses about 1900 producing municipalities, 370,000 coffee growers, 1 million rural workers, and more than 8 million Brazilians who depend on the agro-industrial activity of the coffee chain. Maintaining this leadership in beans production volumes is strategic, but the quality is another very important issue.
The qualitative attributes perceived in the coffee beverage depend on the genetic, environmental, and technological factors involved in coffee bean development. This project aims to investigate the use of Internet of Things technology to improve the production chain of coffee aiming at cup quality. The project is composed of an international interdisciplinary team with researchers from Soil and Plant Sciences, Computer Science, and Design.
In the user experience work package led by Prof Andre Pimenta Freire, we have been working to understand digital skills in rural areas of the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil as almost half of the coffee farms are led by people aged 55 or older. We will be developing inclusive interfaces of sensor-based applications in different stages of the production chain, improving awareness of factors affecting the quality of coffee beans.
Co-Investigator: Dr Emilene Zitkus