Who is Silvia Massruhá: the first woman to preside over Embrapa has been studying artificial intelligence in agriculture for over 20 years

[ad_1]

A doctor from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), Silvia has a 34-year career at the state-owned agricultural research company. Silvia Massruhá is the 1st woman to preside over Embrapa. Embrapa The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) had two milestones in 2023. At the same time that it celebrated its 50th anniversary, it elected, for the first time, a woman to occupy the institution’s highest position. With a 34-year career at Embrapa, Silvia Massruhá assumed, on May 1st, the presidency of the body, whose participation by women represents 35.22% of the positions of researchers. In addition to representativeness, Silvia has a curriculum that is in line with Embrapa’s objectives for the next 50 years. She is involved with digital inclusion projects for small farmers and has been studying artificial intelligence for over 20 years. “It’s my passion”, she declared in an interview with g1. In 2003, she even defended a doctoral thesis, at the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), on how artificial intelligence could contribute to the diagnosis of plant diseases. “That was disruptive at Embrapa back then. When I published the thesis on artificial intelligence, many people said to me ‘but this is very far from agriculture’. And I said that it would be the future”, recalls Silvia. One of the most recent studies by the state-owned company on this subject – and which has Silvia’s contribution – is the creation of a new artificial intelligence algorithm capable of analyzing alterations in the leaves of plants that, before, would only be possible in examinations carried out manually by experts. Another flag of hers is digital inclusion in the countryside. In addition to chairing Embrapa, Silvia coordinates a project at the state-owned company to bring digital solutions to small and medium-sized producers, such as remote sensing, automation, traceability and artificial intelligence applications. Two pilot projects have already been installed in the São Paulo municipalities of Caconde and São Miguel Arcanjo. Trajectory Born in Minas Gerais, Silvia is the granddaughter of a farmer and the daughter of educators. After graduating from high school, she moved to Campinas (SP) to study Systems Analysis at the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-Campinas). After graduation, she got a master’s degree in Automation from the Faculty of Electrical and Computing Engineering at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). At Embrapa, Silvia joined in 1989 to work at the Agricultural Informatics unit, in Campinas (SP), which, in September 2021, was renamed Embrapa Agricultura Digital. The change took place during Silvia’s tenure as General Manager of the research center (2015 to 2022). In the previous period, from August 2009 to March 2015, she held the position of head of Research and Development at the unit.

[ad_2]

Source link