Digital Agriculture Seminars

Since Fall 2020, Purdue Agriculture has hosted the Data-Driven Agriculture seminar series featuring experts in data science and digital agriculture from across Purdue's College of Agriculture and beyond.  

“These presentations highlight the diversity of uses of data and automation in food and agricultural systems.” said Dennis Buckmaster, agricultural and biological engineering professor and Dean’s Fellow of Digital Agriculture at Purdue University. 

To view all past seminars, check out the Data Driven Agriculture playlist on Purdue Agriculture’s YouTube channel. 

Fall 2023 Seminars

Seminars will be held in person in WSLR 116 on Purdue's campus.

• Aug. 31 - Computational thinking for undergraduates in the natural sciences: yes, it's for everyone!, Dr. Diane Ran Wang, Assistant Professor, Agronomy, Purdue University
• Sept. 21 - Third Wave AI: Interpretable, Robust, Trustworthy Machine Learning for Digital Forest and Agriculture, Dr. Guang Lin, Director of Data Science Consulting Services and Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Mathematics, Purdue University

Spring 2023 Seminars 

• Jan. 19 - Confronting an Age of Change, Dr. Joseph Mascaro, Director of Science Programs, Planet Labs
• Feb. 2 - Sensing in Plant Science and Natural Resources: Decisions Driven by Big Data or Better Data?, Matt Bechdol, Chief Executive Officer, GRYFN
• Feb. 16 - Towards next-generation forest structural trait assessment using physics-based simulations - how cartoons can aid in our quest, Dr. Jan van Aardt, Professor, College of Science, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Mar. 2 - Mobilizing agronomic knowledge, Carlos Hirsch, Chief Business Development Officer, Eiwa Corp.
• Mar. 23 - Panel Discussion: Technology adoption insights from stakeholders, Dr. Bruce Erickson, Clinical Associate Professor of Digital Agriculture, Agronomy, Purdue University; Dr. Ankita Raturi, Assistant Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University; Dr. Linda Pfeiffer, Associate Professor, Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication, Purdue University.
• Apr. 6 - Purdue’s Open Ag Technology and Systems Center – progress and collaboration
  opportunities, Dr. James Krogmeier, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
• Apr. 20 - High-resolution high speed structured light 3D imaging for close-range applications, Dr. Song Zhang, Professor and Assistant Head for Experiential Learning, Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University (NOTE: this video link can only be opened by purdue.edu users)
• May 4 - An Overview of Digital Agriculture Research in the AIFARMS National AI Institute, Dr. Vikram Sandinand Adve, Donald B. Gillies Professor of Computer Science and Co-Director, Center for Digital Agriculture, University of Illinois

Fall 2022 Seminars 

• Sept. 15 - Using the Right Tool for the Job: Map Accuracy vs Classification Efficacy, Guofan Shao, professor of forestry and natural resources, Purdue University
• Sept. 22 - Remote Sensing for Forest Type Differentiation and Fuel Load Estimation: A Summary of Research and Lessons Learned, Aaron Maxwell, assistant professor of geography, West Virginia University
• Sept. 29 - Data-Driven Agricultural Water Management, Keith Cherkauer, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, Purdue University
• Oct. 6 - Earthformer: Exploring Space-Time Transformers for Earth System Forecasting, Wenming Ye, Principal Research Product Manager Lead at Amazon Web Services AI; Xingjian Shi, Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon Web Services AI
• Oct. 20 - Purdue's Controlled-environment and Field-based Phenotyping Facilities, Yang Yang, director of digital phenomics, Institute for Plant Sciences, Purdue University
• Oct. 27 - A Roadmap toward Scalably Quantifying Field-Level Agricultural Carbon Outcome, Zhenong Jin, assistant professor for digital agriculture, University of Minnesota
• Nov. 3 - Using Hyperspectral Imaging to Quantify Heavy Metal Stress and Predict Plant Uptake, Lori Hoagland, professor of horticulture, Purdue University
• Nov. 17 - Radar on Root Structure, Liz LaRue, assistant professor of biological sciences, The University of Texas at El Paso
• Dec. 1 - Weather and Climate Data and Information for Non-Meteorologists, Beth Hall, Indiana State Climate Office Director, Purdue University

Spring 2022 Seminars

• Jan. 26 – Hyperspectral Phenotyping in Precision Agriculture, John Couture, associate professor of entomology and forestry and natural resources
• Feb. 24 – Data-Driven Workforce Panel moderated by Bruce Erickson, clinical associate professor of digital agriculture
  • Panel members include Keith Tinsey, Directory of Operations-Midwest, Black Gold Farms; Shrinivas Mane, Distinguished Research Scientist and Head of Computational Sciences, Elanco Animal Health and Robin Thomas, Early Talent Acquisition, Syngenta
• April 21 – Disease Detection Technologies, Christian Cruz, assistant professor of botany and plant pathology

Fall 2021 Seminar

• Dec. 8 – Understanding Risks and Vulnerabilities via Food Systems Dashboards, Jayson Lusk, department head and distinguished professor of agricultural economics

Spring 2021 Seminars

• Feb. 4 – Precision Soil Maps: Moving Beyond Soil Survey. Jason Ackerson, assistant professor of agronomy
• Feb. 11 – The Cover Up: UAV Assessment of Soybean. Shaun Casteel, associate professor of agronomy and Extension soybean and small grains specialist
• Feb. 18 – UAVs in Livestock Production. John Scott, Extension coordinator for digital agriculture  
• Feb. 25 – Partnering with Industry to Move from Reactive to Proactive: A Dairy Farm Example. Jackie Boerman, assistant professor of animal sciences, and Paul Ousterhout, iYOTAH
• Mar. 4 – Digital Forestry: Key Developments in Terrestrial Remote Sensing. Brady Hardiman, assistant professor of forestry and natural resources; Guofan Shao, professor of forestry and natural resources; and Ayman Habib, professor of civil engineering
• Mar. 11 – On Farm Experimentation, Robert Nielsen, professor of agronomy and Extension corn specialist
• Mar. 18 – Digital Forestry: Key Developments in Aerial Remote Sensing. Songlin Fei, professor of forestry and natural resources and Dean’s Chair of Remote Sensing; Joe Hupy, associate professor of aviation technology; and Jinha Jung, assistant professor of civil engineering
• Mar. 25 – Data in Produce Safety. Amanda Deering, clinical associate professor of food science, and Jennifer Crandall, CEO of Safe Food En Route, LLC
• Apr. 1 – Putting a Price on Data. Nathan DeLay, assistant professor of agricultural economics
• Apr. 8 – How Good is Deep-Learning for Weed Identification Using UAV-Imagery. Dharmendra Saraswat, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Varun Aggarwal, graduate student in agricultural and biological engineering
• Apr. 15 – Smarter Treatment of Livestock Disease. Mohit Verma, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and Aaron Ault, senior research engineer
• Apr. 22 – Practical Applications for UAVs. John Scott, Extension coordinator for digital agriculture 
• Apr. 29 – IoT Networks: Sensors and Data Visualization. Nithin Raghunathan, research scientist, and Charilaos Mousoulis, senior research scientist
• May 6 – Public Data for the Public Good. Nicole Widmar, professor and associate head of agricultural economics
• May 13 – Machines and Robotics. John Evans, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, and David Cappelleri, associate professor of mechanical engineering

This series is supported in part by the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN).