Dr. Lei Tian, Director

Dr. Lei Tian is an assistant professor of Agricultural Engineering in the Division of Off-Road Equipment Engineering (OREE), Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He coordinates research in agricultural remote sensing, data management and information system for precision agriculture, field instrumentation and control systems, and intelligent variable-rate chemical application equipment.

Research Interests:  Dr. Tian's research interests are in the development of new generation artificial intelligent equipment for agriculture: outdoor field robotic systems, remote/local field sensing systems, and image analysis/pattern recognition algorithms for outdoor biological objective detection.

Education: Ph.D., Agricultural Engineering, University of California, 1995. M.Eng., Mechanical Engineering, Jilin University of Technology, 1988. BS, Agricultural Engineering, Jilin University of Technology, 1982.

Honors and Awards: "NSF/NCSA Faculty Fellow Award", NCSA/University of Illinois, 2000-2001. "ASAE Superior Paper Award," American Society of Agricultural Engineers,1999-2000.

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Amy Kaleita

While an undergraduate Amy participated in several research projects in imaging and agriculture. During 1995 she worked at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities on a project using non-invasive infrared imaging to assess the severity of pressure ulcers. During 1996 and 1997 she worked for the USDA-ARS at the Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Laboratory on developing GIS-based improvements to the AGNPS hydrology model. While a masters student in civil engineering, she investigated the use of remotely sensed land surface temperature data in hydrologic modeling. After completion of her MS degree, she interned at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she worked on integrating the PSAS data assimilation scheme into an offline land surface component of a NASA global climate model.

Research Interests: Determination of high spatial resolution soil moisture with estimates from hyperspectral imagery.
Remote sensing and precision agriculture for natural resource management and environmental systems

Education:  Ph.D., 2002. University of Illinois; M.S., 1999. University of Illinois; B.S., 1997 Penn State University

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Haibo Yao

• Hyperspectral imaging system optimization
• Weed mapping from hyperspectral image
• Sensor augmentation for GPS based topography mapping

Research Interests:  Remote sensing, GPS applications, software development, sensor integration for remote sensing and precision farming, database, AI.

Education: B.S., 1990, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China; M.S., 1996, Sichuan University, China; M.S., 1998, University of Georgia; Ph.D., 2002, University of Illinois at Urbana

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Peter Groves

Peter began working in the field of data mining for agriculture applications while participating in the summer 2000 Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) program offered by the Automated Learning Group of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Since then he has continued working for that group and also for the Agricultural Remote Sensing Lab, combining his work on neural network application development with the lab's hyperspectral data analysis. Peter has also interned with the engineering consulting firm Packer Engineering, the Ball Horticultural Company conducting seed germination tests, and the Morton Arboretum Soil Sciences Lab.

Research Interests:  Neural networks, Genetic algorithms, Hyperspectral data dimensionality reduction, Modelling hyperspectral data and field condition relationships.

Education: B.S. , 2001, University of Illinois

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Kelly Thorp

Kelly has been employed as a part-time intern with the Institute for Technology Development/Spectral Visions since May 1999. Spectral Visions is a non-profit research organization funded by the NASA Commercial Remote Sensing Program (CRSP). Spectral Visions' long-term goal is to commercialize the use of aerial and satellite remote sensing for agricultural applications. Current projects for the Midwest office include nitrogen stress detection for corn and wheat crops, weed detection in soybeans, and the development of variable-rate application recommendations for each of these.

Research Interests: Image processing, Variable rate application

Education: M.S., 2002, University of Illinois; B.S., 2000, University of Illinois

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Lie Tang

Research Assistant, University of Illinois, 1997- current
Visiting Scholar, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 1995-1997
Software Engineer, Kaitong Industrial Control Company, China 1994-1995

Research Interests:  Sensing and control for precision agriculture
Machine vision, algorithm development, system design, and integration

Education:   Ph.D., 2001, University of Illinois; M.S., 1994, Zhejiang University, China; B.S., 1989, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, China

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Sreekala G. Bajwa

Post-doctoral Research Associate, University of Illinois, 2000 - current.
Research Assistant, University of Illinois, 1996 - 2000.
Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois, 1997-1999.
Assistant Professor, Kerala Agricultural University, India, 1994 to 1996.
Research Assistant, Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India, 1994.
Research Scholar, ASPEE Research Institute, Bombay, India, 1993 - 1994.

Research Interests:&nbspRemote Sensing, precision agriculture, variable rate application, crop modeling, GIS, GPS, yield mapping, in-field variability mapping, sensor development

Education:  Ph.D., 2000, University of Illinois; M. S., 1994, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India; B. S., 1991, Kerala Agricultural University, India.

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Yunshan Zhou

Research Interests: 

Education: 

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