What Holland can teach Silicon Valley: a joint response to unpredictability

Combining drone imagery with weather data and planting schemes to forecast how much fresh vegetables a harvest is going to yield; that's what predictive modelling intern Berend Klaver from TU Delft is sweating on at VanBoven, while his bosses are entertaining the American west coast. VanBoven is one of the ten winners of the Academic Startup Competition 2020, currently on tour in Silicon Valley for a 4-week incubator programme. "The market of fresh vegetables is one of constant shortages and surpluses. VanBoven predicts the harvest of fresh produce to perfectly align supply and demand. The result is decreased food waste, a resilient value chain and fair prices," says the startup on its website.