In collaboration with the Portuguese company FiberSight, the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies (DiSTeBA) of the University of Salento launched an important experiment concerning the application in a real-life context of the innovative ‘thermo-hygrometric’ fibre optic sensors designed and validated at CERN in Geneva and marketed by FiberSight.

The sensors have therefore been installed attheBotanical Garden of the very same Department, for a linear extension of about 200m, and aim to optimise plant irrigation.

This is the world’s first integrated test of the product placed on the international market by FiberSight, a CERN start-up company. The results of the experimentation were presented last May at the Unisalento Congress Centre, with the participation of leading newspapers that gave great prominence to the initiative.