Studierende bearbeiten in Projektteams Fragestellungen von Praxispartner:innen aus dem Agro-Food Bereich. Sie entwickeln wissenschaftlich fundierte, praxistaugliche Lösungsvorschläge und wenden dabei ihre im Studium sowie im Rahmen der Lehrveranstaltung erworbenen fachspezifischen, methodenspezifischen, sozialen und persönlichen Kompetenzen an.

Crop phenotyping aims to quantify traits like photosynthesis, development, architecture, biomass or quality of crops using a broad variety of sensors and analysis procedures. The course aims to provide the necessary basic knowledge in agronomy and plant breeding along with knowledge in image acquisition, computer vision, machine learning and crop modelling to improve crops and cropping systems.

Current Challenges in Plant Breeding brings together MSc and doctoral students with leading national and international experts, as well as stakeholders from science, industry and society, to discuss a topical challenge in plant breeding.Working in small, tutor-guided teams, students investigate selected aspects of the chosen topic and prepare a scientific presentation for a public seminar.

Different experimental designs will be discussed and various statistical tools will be applied to research questions in agroecosystem sciences. Statistical methods range from simple analysis of variance to mixed-models and multivariate statistics. Surveys and manipulative field and laboratory experiments are addressed and students learn to analyse data using a hands-on approach.

The genetic base for many crops has become quite narrow and it is of utmost importance to maintain and manage a maximum number of alleles for world food crops as well as for minor neglected crops.

Molecular tools have substantially contributed to improve the process of plant breeding throughout the last decades. This course illustrates - on the basis of lectures, exercises and practical examples - the most important molecular breeding tools (genetic diversity analyses, QTL and association studies) and how these tools are applied to plant breeding by means of genomics-assisted selection.

Die Vorlesung baut auf Agrargenetik auf, vermittelt praktische Inhalte und schliesst mit einer Exkursion ab. Themen sind: Zuchtziele, rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen, genetische Variation, Sortentypen und Züchtungsmethoden sowie moderne Züchtungsansätze, wie digitale Phänotypisierung, genomische Selektion und Genom Editierung. Ziel ist es das Thema einer breiten Studierendenschaft zu präsentieren.