Master's thesis; Leveraging IoT and Blockchain to Promote Dynamic Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) of Food

Are you interested in shaping the future of sustainable food supply chains? Do you want to explore how cutting-edge digital tools like IoT and blockchain can transform lifecycle assessment processes? Now we have room for two dedicated master students to help us in such an ambitious and fun thesis project. Join our team at the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) for an impactful thesis experience in Lund or Gothenburg!

Background
The food industry is among the most impactful sectors in the world. With regard to the significant foreseen increasing demand for food in the coming decades, this impact is to increase, and negatively affect the local and global environment. Traditional LCAs, while useful for identifying hotspots and comparing scenarios, only provide an average overview of the environmental impacts of products, services, and value chains. This may lead to missing real-time fluctuations that play a big role in improving resource efficiency, reducing costs and decreasing environmental impacts. These two thesis projects explore how IoT and blockchain technology can help swift data collection and communication in food production facilities to enable sustainable decision-making.

Description
The two thesis projects will investigate how the Internet of Things (IoT) devices and blockchain technology can be leveraged to create a more adaptive, transparent, and real-time approach to LCA. To make them more practical, we consider two independent but collaborative thesis projects. One will focus on data and the implications of automated data collection using IoT and the communication of such data in various stages to finally feed the LCA model that is supposed to calculate the environmental impacts of the food in real time. The other projects will be more focused on making the LCA model that can support such a dynamic data input and can precisely calculate the environmental impacts.

The overarching goal of these two projects is to help build a digital infrastructure that can capture changes in resource use, emissions, and waste, dynamically calculate the environmental impacts caused by such changes, and finally promote responsive and sustainable decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

For the first topic:

• Doing a literature review of the state-of-the-art efforts to integrate real-time data streams with IoT sensors and blockchain technology.
• Data collection & analysis, including regular meetings with food manufacturing partners of the project, other master students and researchers working on the project and visiting manufacturing facilities to gather data and analyse the data.
• Design an efficient solution that combines these technologies into a comprehensive platform for dynamic lifecycle assessment. This could be conceptual or practical.

For the second topic:

• Doing a literature review of the state-of-the-art efforts to automate LCA practice.
• Data collection & analysis, including regular meetings with food manufacturing partners of the project, other master students and researchers working on the project and visiting manufacturing facilities to gather data and analyse the data.
• Design a framework for performing LCA of food products using real-time data, recognising the benefits it can bring to the table (compared to common LCAs) in terms of improved decision-making in food production facilities.

Qualifications
We’re seeking two motivated master’s students one with a background in data management and engineering and another one with a background in food science, environmental engineering, supply chain management, or related fields. Ideal candidates will be curious, tech-savvy, and have a passion for sustainability and data-driven decision-making.

Essential Skills

- Strong analytical abilities and attention to detail

- Effective communication skills for collaboration with industry partners and presenting findings

Why RISE?
At RISE, you’ll work alongside a team of experts committed to advancing sustainable systems for the future. This thesis project offers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in implementing and testing cutting-edge digital tools in real-world food production environments.

Terms
Deadline for Applications: November 22, 2024 

Location: Lund or Gothenburg, Sweden. Limited travel for facility visits and conferences may be required.

Benefits: 10 000 SEK on satisfactory oral + written thesis defense.

Welcome with your application!
Ready to be at the forefront of sustainable innovation? Apply now and help us pave the way for next-generation lifecycle assessments! For questions, please contact Mehran Rad (Mehran.naseri.rad@ri.se) or Pegah Amani (Pegah.amani@ri.se). Deadline for Applications is November 22, 2024.