Olds College Centre for Innovation (OCCI) hosted its first Research Showcase on Nov. 4, 2025 – where researchers had the opportunity to shine a spotlight on their current research projects. Hosted in the Werklund Agriculture and Technology Centre (WATC), each research team presented on applied research activities from marginal cropland to sheep parasite detection to agrivoltaics. This full day covered a wide variety of exciting research topics for students, staff, faculty and alumni.
In addition to the nine presentations, research booths lined the atrium from each area of focus at the College – the Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production (TACLP), Smart Agriculture, Crop Research and Environmental Stewardship.
“There is so much incredible research being carried out by OCCI that has a real impact on industry and advances agriculture and environmental initiatives, but many of our students do not get directly exposed to it – I hope they left excited to learn more and possibly get involved,” said Keith Friedlander, Research and Scholarly Activity Lead, Olds College. “I hope students and staff who attended walked away with a new perspective of the exciting work being carried out by OCCI.”
Daniel Stefner, Project Lead with the Smart Agriculture applied research team, opened the session by challenging the audience to consider, “What should be done about marginal cropland?” Herman Simons, Manager of Smart Agriculture, displayed findings from the project where they compared over 20 variables including growth stages, soil moisture, plant stand and yield (to name a few) on a planter versus an air seeder.
A field analysis was presented by Roy Maki, Project Manager, highlighting the Raven Augmenta technology that senses crop conditions using digital imagery and acts to make a crop input change during field operations in real-time.
Brianna Elliot, Project Lead with the TACLP, presented on Evaluating Emerging Technologies for Adaptive Grazing Systems, highlighting the recent trials with the virtual fence collars. With various key learnings from this project, Elliot mentioned exciting plans for the next season to continue with these trials.
Concluding the morning session, Dr. Yaogeng Lei, Research Scientist with the TACLP, spoke about the research project on sheep gastrointestinal parasite detection using metabolomic and vibroacoustic technologies. ImPulse Una, an emerging technology originated in the human health industry, successfully distinguished parasite-infected sheep from the control group, suggesting a promising potential for gastrointestinal parasite diagnosis in sheep.
Over their lunch break, guests participated in a guided tour of the OCCI lab spaces, the greenhouses and the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) container for an insiders scoop on where some of the research takes place.
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Representing Environmental Stewardship, Research Associate Dr. Semeton Amosu, explored the exciting potential of agrivoltaics and highlighted ongoing research projects on soil health assessment tools. Ike Edeogu, Research Manager, covered the agricultural surface water management projects such as the floating islands.
Shabeg Briar, Research Scientist for Crop Research, highlighted herbicide testing on the small plot crops – where researchers are able to evaluate in a controlled, repeatable way before large-scale adoption. Dr. Arshdeep Gill, Research Associate, focused on the variety testing program taking place in the growing season. He also displayed the collaborative testing of new biostimulant products with industry partners taking place – highlighting how this trial begins in the OCCI labs and then moves to the greenhouses, into the field and onto the producer. The biostimulant research supports sustainable agriculture by enhancing nutrient uptake and plant stress tolerance, allowing crops to maintain high yields with reduced synthetic fertilizer inputs.
The day concluded with a full house of faculty, researchers and students – who had a positive discussion about potential research opportunities, ways that students are involved in research at the College and the challenges and potential to build onto those initiatives.
“The Research Showcase provided a great window into the work of our OCCI researchers,” says Friedlander. “It was great to see people asking about the equipment displayed in the atrium and learn about the lab facilities during the tour. I even saw OCCI researchers asking questions about each other's work and learning more about what the other teams are working on.”
The next Research Showcase event will take place in March 2026 and focus on projects undertaken by faculty and students.
The Smart Farm is working towards providing producers with real-life applied research to help them make informed decisions about implementing technology in their own operations.