The Center for Digital Forestry brings together a multidisciplinary research team from forestry, engineering, geomatics, computer science, aviation technology, information science and other disciplines to explore remote sensing, big data and artificial intelligence and methods for applying them to forestry. The team is supported by Purdue Research Computing offering world-class cloud computing and a network of supercomputers.

Faculty
Daniel Aliaga
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Website
Areas of focus: Computer graphics/vision, deep visual computing, machine learning
Bedrich Benes
Professor of Computer Science
bbenes@purdue.edu
Website
Areas of focus: Computer graphics, 3D vegetation reconstruction, functional structural plant models, deep learning
Yingjie Chen
Associate Professor
victorchen@purdue.edu
Areas of focus: Human-Computer Interaction, Information Visualization, Visual Analytics
Anna Conrad
Research Plant Pathologist, USDA Forest Service
anna.conrad@usda.gov
John Couture
Assistant Professor, Entomology, Forestry and Natural Resources
couture@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: Plant chemical and physiological ecology and vegetation spectroscopy
Melba Crawford
Professor, Civil Engineering and Agronomy
mcrawford@purdue.edu
Areas of focus: Remote sensing, machine learning algorithms and applications
Songlin Fei, director
Professor and Dean’s Chair of Remote Sensing, Forestry and Natural Resources
sfei@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: Forest ecology, modeling, remote sensing
Rado Gazo
Professor, Forestry and Natural Resources
gazo@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: Wood and tree identification, quality assessment and processing
Matthew Ginzel
Professor, Entomology, Forestry and Natural Resources
Director, Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center (HTIRC)
mginzel@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Ayman Habib
Thomas A. Page Professor of Civil Engineering, Lyles School of Civil Engineering
ahabib@purdue.edu
Website
Areas of focus: System integration, system calibration, geo-referencing, data integration/fusion
Brady Hardiman
Assistant Professor, Forestry and Natural Resources
hardimanb@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: Urban forestry, LiDAR
Jacob Hosen
Assistant Professor, Forestry and Natural Resources
jhosen@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: IoT, sensor development
Joseph Hupy
Associate Professor, Aviation and Transportation Technology
jhupy@purdue.edu
Website
Areas of focus: UAS data collection, processing and analysis
Douglass Jacobs
Fred M van Eck Professor of Forest Biology and Associate Head of Extension, Forestry and Natural Resources
djacobs@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Jian Jin
Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
jinjian@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: Machine systems engineering, data science, digital agriculture
Jinha Jung
Assistant Professor, Lyles School of Civil Engineering
jinha@purdue.edu
Areas of focus: Remote sensing, LiDAR, HPC for remote sensing applications, WebGIS
Nicole Kong
Associate Professor, Information Studies
kongn@purdue.edu
Website
Areas of focus: GIS, remote sensing, geospatial analysis, geoportal
Damon Lercel
Assistant Professor, Purdue Polytechnic Institute
dlercel@purdue.edu
Areas of focus: Unmanned aircraft systems, advanced air mobility, workforce development
Cheryl Zhenyu Qian
Chair and Professor, Art and Design, Industrial Design, Rueff School Faculty
qianz@purdue.edu
Areas of focus: 1) the harmonious integration of physical and virtual interactions in the user experience design, 2) adopting interaction design theories, tools, and evaluation methods to review, compare, guide, and enhance product design outcomes, and 3) employing innovative design thinking into the domain of visual analytics.
Michael Saunders
Associate Professor, Forestry and Natural Resources
msaunder@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Gang Shao
Associate Professor, Information Studies
gshao@purdue.edu
Areas of focus: Remote sensing, data visualization and data science education
Guofan Shao
Professor, Forestry and Natural Resources
shao@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: Optical remote sensing, automated tree measurement
Keith Woeste
Adjunct Assitant Professor, Forestry and Natural Resources
woeste@purdue.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of focus: Applied machine learning, cloud computing, big data
Baijian Yang
Professor, Computer and Information Technology
byang@purdue.edu
Website
Areas of focus: Applied machine learning, cloud computing, big data
Song Zhang
Assistant Head for Experiential Learning, Professor of Mechanical Engineering
szhang15@purdue.edu
Areas of focus: Design; Systems, measurements, and controls

Staff
Meredith Cobb
Program Manager, Agricultural Research
mcobb2@purdue.edu
Nancy Cramer
Administrative Assistant, Agricultural Research and Graduate Education
njcramer@purdue.edu
Jarrod Doucette
Lead Research Analyst, Ag Data Services
jdoucett@purdue.edu
Jarrod is a Lead Research Analyst with the Agriculture Data Services team, and the Interim Director.   His focus is on combining data architecture and stewardship to improve analytic and visualization capabilities in the areas of agriculture and natural resources research. 
Benny Goller
Lead Research Analyst, Ag Data Services
gollerb@purdue.edu
Benny Goller enjoys working on experimental design, data quality control, analytic pipelines, simulations, and visualization. He primarily works with faculty and research groups in Digital Forestry and the Institute for Plant Sciences/Alumni Ag Seed Phenotyping facility.
Jennier Perkins
Director of Strategic Initiatives, College of Agriculture
perkin80@purdue.edu
Erin Robinson
Communications Lead
erobin@purdue.edu
Robinson leads strategic communications for the College of Agriculture’s Next Moves programs.
Cameron Wingren
Unmanned Aerial Systems Data Collection Specialist, Forestry and Natural Resources
cwingren@purdue.edu
Cameron conducts primary UAS data collection for the Digital Forestry Initiative and assists with
overall geospatial data collection/processing. Additionally, he interfaces with the various Digital Forestry
lab groups to coordinate data collection, processing, and dissemination between researchers and
stakeholder groups.

Grad Students/Post Doctoral Researchers

Aviles Toledo, Claudia, Ph.D., cavilest@purdue.edu
Lab: Melba Crawford

Carpenter, Joshua, Ph.D., jcarpene@purdue.edu
Lab: Jinha Jung
Research: tree inventory

Chandrasekaran, Aishwarya, Ph.D., chandr95@purdue.edu
Lab: Guofan Shao & Songlin Fei
Research: inventory

Choi, Dennis, Postdoc, dhchoi@purdue.edu
Lab: Brady Hardiman and Songlin Fei
Research: LiDAR structure

Chong, Ken, MSc,  chong54@purdue.edu
Lab: Jacob Hosen
Research: Sensor

Ciupak, Meghan, MSc, mciupak@purdu.edu
Lab: Jacob Hosen
Research: water

Firoze, Adnan, Ph.D., afiroze@purdue.edu
Lab: Daniel Aliaga
Research: AI for urban tree

Gaillard, Mathiew, Ph.D., mgaillar@purdue.edu
Lab: Bedrich Benes
Research: AI

Hashemin, Meghdad, Ph.D., hashemin@purdue.edu
Lab: Ayman Habib
Research: inventory

Heidar, Rastiveis, Postdoc, h.rasti@gmail.com
Lab: Ayman Habib
Research: LiDAR analytics

Huang, An-Te, MSc, huan1577@purdue.edu
Lab: Melba Crawford

Huang, Yunmei, Ph.D., huan1643@purdue.edu
Lab: Songlin Fei
Research: AI species Id

Joseph, Mina, MSc, mjosephf@purdue.edu
Lab: Ayman Habib

Li, Bowen, MSc, li4245@purdue.edu
Lab: Guofan Shao
Research: Mapping

Li, Bsheng, Ph.D., li2343@purdue.edu
Lab: Bedrich Benes
Research: AI

Lin, Jill, Ph.D., lin934@purdue.edu
Lab: Ayman Habib
Research: inventory

Liu, Jidong, Ph.D., liu2845@purdue.edu
Lab: Ayman Habib
Research: UAV

Lu, Yawen, Ph.D., lu976@purdue.edu
Lab: Yingjie Chen
Research: Information Visualization and Visual Analytics Machine Learning / Computer Vision

Manish, Raja, Ph.D., rmanish@purdue.edu
Lab: Ayman Habib
Research: inventory

Nazeri, Behrokh, Postdoc, bnazeri@purdue.edu
Lab: John Couture
Research: disease

Osterman, Ian, MSc, iosterma@purdue.edu
Lab: Bedrich Benes

Ou, Botong, PhD, bou@purdue.edu
Lab: Jinha Jung
Research: ML/DL to solve image classification

Park, Sylvia, Ph.D., park1200@purdue.edu
Lab: John Couture & Douglass Jacobs
Research: disease

Quijano, Karoll, Ph.D., kquijano@purdue.edu
Lab: Melba Crawford

Ritter, Madie, MSc, ritter33@purdue.edu
Lab: Jacob Hosen

Shao, Jinyuan, Ph.D., jyshao@purdue.edu
Lab: Songlin Fei
Research: AI point cloud

Song, Zhihang, Ph.D., song399@purdue.edu
Lab: Jian Jin
Research: disease

Tang, Weitao, Ph.D., tang384@purdue.edu
Lab: Baijian Yang
Research: AI for fire

Thapa, Bina, Postdoc, thapab@purdue.edu
Lab: Songlin Fei
Research: tree ecophysiology

Toca, Andrei, Postdoc, otoca@purdue.edu
Lab: Douglass Jacobs

Wang, Jianming, Postdoc, wang5736@purdue.edu
Lab: Songlin Fei/Brady Hardiman
Research: LiDar structure

Wang, Taojun, Ph.D., wang3241@purdue.edu
Lab: Melba Crawford

Warner, Charlie, MSc, warner88@purdue.edu
Lab: Rado Gazo
Research: bark id

Wei, Xing, Postdoc, wei408@purdue.edu
Lab: Jian Jin
Research: disease sensing

Wu, Fanyou, Postdoc, wu1297@purdue.edu
Lab: Rado Gazo
Research: image recognition

Xiang, Wang, PhD, xiang86@purdue.edu
Lab: Song Zhang
Research: Smartphone app development

Yi-Cheng, Ting, Ph.D., cheng331@purdue.edu
Lab: Ayman Habib
Research: inventory

Zhou, Tian, Ph.D., zhou732@purdue.edu
Lab: Ayman Habib
Research: inventory

Zhou, Xiaochen, Ph.D., zhou1178@purdue.edu
Lab: Bedrich Benes
Research: 3D construction from point cloud and photographs