Vineland names Hussam Haroun director of automation

According a press release, Hussam Haroun has joined Vineland Research and Innovation Centre as Director of Automation. In his new role, Haroun will oversee Vineland’s activities related to automation, artificial intelligence and digital agriculture technologies.

He launched his own start-up after patenting and commercializing a new technology during graduate school. As CEO, he secured more than $3 million in seed investment and grew the company to 30 employees with multimillion-dollar annual revenues.

Haroun holds a Masters of Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Innovation from McMaster University and has experience in the telecommunications industry, managing multimillion-dollar projects with Rogers Communications as a senior design engineer.

“Haroun’s technical, business and leadership experience will provide an excellent foundation for his role at Vineland in leading the automation team to success,” says Tania Humphrey, Ph.D. and Vice President, Research & Development at Vineland. “Automation is key for Canadian growers to address rising costs, labour accessibility and more efficient resource management. Vineland is proud to be a leader in this developing field.”

Vineland is home to a national automation research cluster supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Vineland researchers are leading three projects focused on horticulture: developing smart wireless irrigation technologies for potted plants, automating greenhouse cucumber harvest and developing a robotic solution for automated mushroom harvesting