Forecasting system for powdery mildew on wine wins science prize from the University of Göttingen
Mildew on wine is predicted by VineForecast up to 4 days in advance. The forecasts of VineForecast are focused on the fungal diseases powdery mildew and downy mildew in viticulture. The system uses a purely data-based approach consisting of weather data, machine learning algorithms, topography data and an interaction module. In addition to its own models, the forecasting system integrates knowledge from the practical experience of winegrowers as well as current research from the field of enology. In this way, forecasts are made for the Powdery and Downy mildew created individually for the vineyards of a farm even without weather stations.
This approach was honored on July 14, 2021 at the award ceremony of the LIFT-OFF start-up competition. Throughout the year, the team already participated in several workshops of the start-up competition of the Georg-August-University Göttingen. In the end, VineForecast is happy to receive prize money of € 2,400 after winning the audience award in the science category.
Viticulture app VineForecast proves itself against life science teams with forecasts for mildew on wine
The award ceremony of the competition took place digitally this year. In the meantime, more than 300 viewers followed the competition live on screen. Due to the location, projects from the life science sector were particularly represented in the science category. With VineForecast, only one project from the agricultural sector or viticulture was awarded.
In the science category, a robotic orthosis for individualized hand rehabilitation, a high-throughput screening for cognitive drugs to prevent neurodegenerative diseases and a sensor system for a chemical fingerprint of drugs were awarded. Once again, we take this opportunity to congratulate all the winning teams.
Prize money will be invested in further development of powdery mildew forecasts on grapevine and data communication
VineForecast will invest the prize money from the LIFT-OFF start-up competition in the coming months in the development of the forecasting models (e.g. Leaf wetness models) and database structures. Furthermore, the dashboard is being developed and optimal communication of forecasts for powdery mildew on wine is being advanced. In addition, the prize money went into the development of the new website.
Finally, we would like to thank you for the great organization of the competition during the past year. Despite the complications caused by the current COVID-19 crisis, the contest was successfully executed. Likewise, we would like to thank our mentors Björn and Tim from the Zinkler & Brandes GmbH,who were available to answer our questions in the area of software development.
