Today we traveled from Amsterdam to Utrecht to visit Aurea Imaging, A precision agriculture company that utilizes drones and various image capturing sensors to give farmers and researchers valuable information such as the amount of yield per tree in an orchard. The one thing I was impressed with the most however was the campus that this company resided in. the buildings were very modern, and hosted over 20 different start up business with lots of spaces to share and collaborate. the offices also offered a buffet (which was absolutely delicious), a 24 hour gym, and various meeting rooms that companies could rent out. These offices were much better than the stereotypical cubicles you would find in an American office, and is something that I would hope to have at whatever office I may be working at in the future.

This company visit I feel was the one that most directly related to the idea of concept to customer. One service this company provides that I found extremely interesting is that they will use their drone capturing systems to find the location of weeds in a carrot farm, and can implement a program into the farmers machines that will automatically spray herbicide on only the area where weeds are, instead of spraying the whole field. This not only is better for the environment, but it also allows the farmers to save up to 90% of the amount of herbicide they would otherwise use. By using this company’s technology, farmers are able to not only know which crops are performing well and which ones aren’t, but also what they can do to improve the yield of all the crops, no matter their performance. This would not only increase the total yield for the farmers, allowing them to make more profit on the work they put into their farm, but also would make the process more efficient for them, getting the same results from less work and effort. The image below is a sensor the company has been working on that the farmers would buy, and mount on their tractor that would allow for constant data acquisition, as opposed to having someone come out and fly a drown every couple months.

After the company visit, our guide Sophia took us on an impromptu tour of Utrecht, which is the city she is from. The most interesting thing we saw in my opinion was a beautiful couch that was once a Catholic Church, but after the reformation became a protestant, then nondenominational church. This church was absolutely beautiful with incredible stained glass windows that you can see below.