Image: Shutterstock
On Tuesday 23 July 2024, at the Collaborate Innovate conference Gala Dinner, more than 200 delegates joined Cooperative Research Australia in congratulating the winner of its 2024 Early Career Researcher Competition.
The awards celebrate emerging industry-focused research superstars, with this year’s winner – Reuben Mah from Soil CRC and University of Tasmania – being selected from a pool of almost 70 entries.
Reuben’s research has led to the development of a portable, pocket-sized 3D printed device for in-the-field soil testing.
Fluid sustainability is a real threat to Australian farmland. One of the mitigating solutions is to improve and sustain soil fertility for crop growth. However, soil nutrients are often unpredictable, and so farmers end up carrying out frequent soil tests that involves sending samples to laboratories for analysis. This can be a timely, costly, and inaccurate process, with results not necessarily capturing any recent changes in the soil.
Reuben led the development of a portable, pocket-sized 3D printed device that is paired with smartphone apps to enable farmers to perform multiple measurements quickly, in-the-field, and in real time, while still obtaining lab-accurate results. The device has already been reviewed by both growers and agronomists, allowing them to optimise their soil fertility interventions for the best crop growth.
Ways to further upskill the production of this device are now being explored.
“We are excited to see first-hand how Reuben’s research is progressing, and how it is already delivering a quick and innovative solution to essential soil testing in the agriculture sector,” said Jane O’Dwyer, CEO of Cooperative Research Australia.
“We congratulate Reuben on this enormous feat, along with our four other competition finalists, whose work all points to a promising future of research for Australia. On behalf of Cooperative Research Australia, we are delighted to be able to offer such opportunity to those Early Career Researchers who operate within our member organisations/associations – an opportunity that we hope will continue to highlight the value of R&D investment to industry, and thus encourage further industry-research collaboration across the nation.