Leadership
My MS thesis is not just about developing deep learning algorithms but also to learn data collection and data management skills. Since May 2021, I have collected more than 200,000 aerial images using DJI M300 drone of crops and weeds from sites i) Eastern Shore Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Virginia ii) 5 Schokley farmer farms (Duckington, Bridgetown, and Brookwood) in Virginia. Hence I was responsible to organize and lead a weed science research team at Eastern Shore AREC, Virginia Tech to build deep learning technologies for weed mapping operations. I have helped Virginia Tech agricultural research team by creating a large database of crops and weeds that would be useful for future generations of scientists. I have devoted 50% of my Master’s research time to collecting, managing, and organizing the datasets and 50% of time to data analysis and building deep learning models using processed data. It makes me an independent machine learning researcher who has fieldwork experience.
Me flying DJI M300 drone in agricultural field (left) and some of the aerial images of the crops and weeds (middle and right)What makes my Master’s research unique is that my research problem was inspired by interacting with farmers and extension agents in Virginia. Farmers in Virginia were facing huge crop loss due to Common ragweed and Palmer amaranth. Hence I decided to solve the problems of farmers through technology. I helped the weed science team to collect samples of weeds by visiting 30+ counties for herbicide treatment research. My research is being appreciated and adopted by farmers and extension agents in Virginia and I was invited by Virginia Cooperative Extension on February 2, 2022, to give a talk about my research results in a training workshop organized for extension agents and farmers on the topic Unmanned Aerial System based remote sensing and its applications in precision agriculture.
One of the major challenges agricultural researchers face is the lack of availability of agricultural quality data to build machine learning models. United States Department of Agriculture is partnering with universities, farmers and extension agents in several states to develop a digital database for crops and weeds. I am leading the weed collection team in Virginia State and contributing to a nationwide weed image repository of three weeds Velvetleaf, Common ragweed, and Common lambsquarters. This weed image repository will be a breakthrough contribution toward the adoption of AI in agriculture science for the future generation of AI researchers.
I led the Virginia Tech research team working on machine learning in agriculture science at 3 national conferences i) Southern Weed Science Society of America Conference 2022 (SWSS), ii) Weed Science Society of America Conference 2022, iii) Envisioning 2050 in the Southeast: AI-Driven Innovations in the Agriculture Conference 2022. I won the first prize poster award at SWSS conference and the Outstanding best research award to Dhiraj Srivastava at Envisioning 2050 in the Southeast conference organized by the United States Department of Agriculture. Reviewers appreciated my research aptitude, and good communication skills in delivering results according to the background of the audiences.
- Center for Advanced Innovation in Agriculture (CAIA) at Virginia Tech is a group of scientists and students across multiple departments working together to solve complex agricultural problems using machine learning and cyber security. I have played a key role in establishing the graduate affiliate organization of CAIA. I was one of the first members of the CAIA graduate affiliate which became an official student organization on March 1, 2022. As a secretary and student outreach coordinator, I was responsible for planning and managing the CAIA events, CAIA student ambassador at national conferences and developing the marketing strategies to bring more people into CAIA. Virginia Tech recognized my contribution in March 2022 for promoting CAIA and I was the only grad student to be recognized for my efforts to promote CAIA.
I have been Senator of Graduate School from the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences (SPES), Virginia Tech between February 2021 to May 2022 where I raised the issue of grad students’ stipends and summer internship fees for international students.
I was also a professional development chair between February 2021 to May 2021 for grad students at School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech. I organized professional workshops on job search and learning paper reviewing skills for grad students.