About Us

Mission

Our mission is to provide engineering solutions and methodologies for agricultural prosperity and ecological restoration. With practicality, commercialisation, and easy adoption in mind, we aim to enhance the social value, economic value, and sustainability of agricultural and environmental resources. Our team’s expertise is multidisciplinary and spans areas including engineering, plant biology, agronomy, animal production, and ecosystem restoration.

Facilities

CEI:AgER is physically located at the UWA Shenton Park Field Station nestled amongst the bushland and paddocks and only 7km from the main University campus. Our research and development facilities include office space and conference room, Seed Flaming Lab and a well-equipped Prototyping Workshop. The 20 hectare field station is also home to rainfed and irrigated plot land, netted areas, greenhouses, and temperature controlled spaces perfect for field testing engineering innovations in semi-realistic environments.

Research & Work Areas

Our research & work covers a range of topics, including:

  • Development of innovative practical solutions to real-world problems

  • Commercialisation of new technologies

  • Engineering innovation R&D

  • Sustainable farming systems

  • Environmental management

  • Historical evaluation of design & innovation

  • Use & development of novel design methodologies

Working Methods

Our design process builds on established methodologies to make engineering innovation around agriculture and ecological restoration more accessible and achievable. To efficiently develop commercially adoptable solutions, we work with industry and use a combined Technology Readiness Level (TRL) - Commercial Readiness Index (CRI) Framework coupled with Quality Function Deployment (QFD) - House of Quality (HoQ), as well as the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). We also draw upon the contemporary, historical and natural world designs for inspiration. With the ability to prototype and test onsite, we are able to accelerate the development of new technologies to high TRL-CRI maturity.

Alignment with United Nations’ Goals

The engineering solutions and methodologies we produce contribute directly to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which form the basis of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda, a framework designed to address the most pressing challenges of our time.

The 17 Sustainable Development goals are shown below. Relevant goals are listed under each project on the Projects page.