Computational Methods for Agricultural Research: Advances and Applications

Despite currents migration trends towards population centers, agriculture remains one of the most important staples of human culture, as these centers are dependent on a constant food supply. Computational Methods for Agricultural Research: Advances and Applications brings computing solutions to ancient practices and modern concerns, sowing the seeds for a sustainable, constant food supply. This book treats subjects as old modeling flood patterns and predicting potential climates to distinctly 21st century topics such as pesticide leaching models and the impact of agricultural policy. All of these studies utilize cutting-edge computational techniques of interest to both academics and practitioners in agriculture but also computational modeling researchers, creating a reference practical significance.

Hércules Antonio do Prado, Ph.D. is a researcher in Computer Science, focusing his work on data/text mining, neural networks, knowledge-based systems, and knowledge management. In 1984 he joined the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation and, in 1992, the Catholic University of Brasília as an assistant professor. He received his D.Sc. in Computer Science at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (2001) his M.Sc. in Systems Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1989). In 1999 he stayed in the Information Sciences Department of University of Pittsburgh as a Visitor Scholar, developing research for his doctoral program. He undergraduated in Computer Systems at the Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil (1976).

Dr Alfredo José Barreto Luiz is a researcher in Applied Statistics at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and a post-doctoral fellow at brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE). He received his D.Sc. in Remote Sensing at INPE and his Master degree in Statistics and Quantitative Methods from the University of Brasília (UnB). He did his undergraduate course in Agronomy at Federal University of Lavras (UFLa). His research interest includes the study of scenarios and the spatial and temporal dynamics of agriculture, beside data analysis in biometrics and environmetrics.

Homero Chaib Filho was born in 1954 in Belém-PA, Brazil. In 1970 was awarded the diploma of merit, by the National Council of nuclear energy of Brazil, for the monograph on the development of nuclear energy in Brazil. In 1977 has taken his bachelor's degree in Mathematics at Universidade de Brasília, Brazil. In 1983, took his master in Production Engineering, with emphasis on Operation Research, at Universidade de Santa Catarina, Brazil. At Escuela superior de Ingenieros agrónomos of the Universidad de Madri, took his Doctoral degree in Applied Mathematics, in 1990. Since 1977, he was a researcher at Embrapa, where he worked in the areas of data analysis and computational methods. In 2009 came to retire at Embrapa to seek new horizons.