People
Principal Investigator
Sunoj Shajahan
Assistant Professor
Sunoj was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, India. His interest for FOSS started during his PhD where he developed four software tools for processing field images using FOSS, ImageJ. Druing his period as a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, he worked on remote sensing and data analysis for crop yield prediction. Sunoj joined UIUC in Fall 2023, and started the Digital Precision Agriculture Lab, which focuses on using precision technologies and developing data-driven practical and geospatial solutions for agriculture.
sunoj@illinois.edu | |
Assistant Professor
Sunoj was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, India. His interest for FOSS started during his PhD where he developed four software tools for processing field images using FOSS, ImageJ. Druing his period as a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, he worked on remote sensing and data analysis for crop yield prediction. Sunoj joined UIUC in Fall 2023, and started the Digital Precision Agriculture Lab, which focuses on using precision technologies and developing data-driven practical and geospatial solutions for agriculture.
sunoj@illinois.edu | |
Graduate students
Lora Mohanty
Ph.D. student
Lora is from Bhubaneswar, India. She completed her M.Tech. in Agro and Rural Technology at IIT Guwahati in 2024 and joined our team in Fall 2024. Her masters research included development of a micro-reactor using Computational Fluid Dynamics which enhances the synthesis of ammonia compared to the existing reactors. Her research interests are on artificial intelligence, remote sensing, Ag robotics, and precision agriculture and their applications for the development of farmer friendly resources. She is currently working on the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in agricultural applications.
loram3@illinois.edu |
Ph.D. student
Lora is from Bhubaneswar, India. She completed her M.Tech. in Agro and Rural Technology at IIT Guwahati in 2024 and joined our team in Fall 2024. Her masters research included development of a micro-reactor using Computational Fluid Dynamics which enhances the synthesis of ammonia compared to the existing reactors. Her research interests are on artificial intelligence, remote sensing, Ag robotics, and precision agriculture and their applications for the development of farmer friendly resources. She is currently working on the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) in agricultural applications.
loram3@illinois.edu |
Sandesh Poudel
Ph.D. student
Sandesh is from Chitwan, Nepal and joined our team in Spring 2025. He earned his B.E. in Agricultural Engineering from Tribhuvan University, and his M.S. from the University of Georgia, where he developed the innovative Digital Agricultural Technology Readiness Level (DATRL) framework to assess agricultural technology maturity. His research interest includes robotics, artificial intelligence, remote sensing, and precision agriculture in order to develop sustainable farming solutions. Sandesh is currently working on developing solutions for automatic weed detection and removal using robotic platform. He is also the author of book, "Agricultural Extension Education" and has received multiple awards for his academic and leadership contributions.
spoudel2@illinois.edu | |
Ph.D. student
Sandesh is from Chitwan, Nepal and joined our team in Spring 2025. He earned his B.E. in Agricultural Engineering from Tribhuvan University, and his M.S. from the University of Georgia, where he developed the innovative Digital Agricultural Technology Readiness Level (DATRL) framework to assess agricultural technology maturity. His research interest includes robotics, artificial intelligence, remote sensing, and precision agriculture in order to develop sustainable farming solutions. Sandesh is currently working on developing solutions for automatic weed detection and removal using robotic platform. He is also the author of book, "Agricultural Extension Education" and has received multiple awards for his academic and leadership contributions.
spoudel2@illinois.edu | |
Xiaoyu Zhang
MS student, ABE
Zhang is from China. His research interests are in satellite image analysis, geospatial analysis, and machine learning. His MS thesis focuses on “Generalizing yield prediction and identifying key factors to improve the accuracy of prediction.”
xiaoyu26@illinois.edu
MS student, ABE
Zhang is from China. His research interests are in satellite image analysis, geospatial analysis, and machine learning. His MS thesis focuses on “Generalizing yield prediction and identifying key factors to improve the accuracy of prediction.”
xiaoyu26@illinois.edu
Abhinav Pagadala
MS student, Statistics and Data Science
Abhi is from Manhattan, KS. He is part of the AIFARMS project on mechanical weeding project on horseradish. With his expertise, he is training and testing a few detection and segmentation models for navigation and weed removal. He is also finetuning certain models to make it light-weight and can run on smaller edge computing device.
asp14@illinois.edu |
MS student, Statistics and Data Science
Abhi is from Manhattan, KS. He is part of the AIFARMS project on mechanical weeding project on horseradish. With his expertise, he is training and testing a few detection and segmentation models for navigation and weed removal. He is also finetuning certain models to make it light-weight and can run on smaller edge computing device.
asp14@illinois.edu |
Janmejay Rathi
MS, Robotics and Autonomy
Janmejay is from Nagpur, India. He completed his B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering from Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur and pursued his MS at UIUC. He graduated in Fall 2024 and joined our team as Robotics Engineer in Spring 2025. He is passionate about robotics and working on integrating components for a horseradish weeding project.
jurathi2@illinois.edu |
MS, Robotics and Autonomy
Janmejay is from Nagpur, India. He completed his B.E. in Computer Science and Engineering from Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management, Nagpur and pursued his MS at UIUC. He graduated in Fall 2024 and joined our team as Robotics Engineer in Spring 2025. He is passionate about robotics and working on integrating components for a horseradish weeding project.
jurathi2@illinois.edu |
Undergraduate students
Hannah Surya Sundararajan
Junior, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Hannah is from Greater Milwaukee, WI. She is pursuing a dual degree in Agricultural & Biological Engineering and Spanish at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, minoring in Geography and Geographic Information Sciences. She was also enlisted for 4 years in the Air National Guard as an Engineering Technician. In Fall 2024, she was selected as a NASA DEVELOP intern.
hss5@illinois.edu |
Junior, Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Hannah is from Greater Milwaukee, WI. She is pursuing a dual degree in Agricultural & Biological Engineering and Spanish at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, minoring in Geography and Geographic Information Sciences. She was also enlisted for 4 years in the Air National Guard as an Engineering Technician. In Fall 2024, she was selected as a NASA DEVELOP intern.
hss5@illinois.edu |
Seth Van Hoveln
Senior, Engineering Technology Management in Agricultural Sciences
Seth is from Milford, IL. He comes from a farm background and an expert in precision agriculture. He will graduate in Spring 2025, and is intersted in pursuing a MS and joining our team as a graduate student in Fall 2025.
sethtv2@illinois.edu
Senior, Engineering Technology Management in Agricultural Sciences
Seth is from Milford, IL. He comes from a farm background and an expert in precision agriculture. He will graduate in Spring 2025, and is intersted in pursuing a MS and joining our team as a graduate student in Fall 2025.
sethtv2@illinois.edu
Jusjeev Bhurjee
Senior, Computer Science
Jusjeev is from New Delhi, India. He has spent most of his time outside of India, pursuing his schooling in Argentina. He is involved in the robotics project and has been developing an autonomous navigation algorithm for the Amiga Platform.
bhurjee2@illinois.edu |
Senior, Computer Science
Jusjeev is from New Delhi, India. He has spent most of his time outside of India, pursuing his schooling in Argentina. He is involved in the robotics project and has been developing an autonomous navigation algorithm for the Amiga Platform.
bhurjee2@illinois.edu |
Advait Talhayani
Sophomore, Computer Science
Adviat is from Mumbai, India. He works on a project focusing on developing a segmetation model for identifying corn ears from a video footage collected on a combine harvester.
advaitt3@illinois.edu
Sophomore, Computer Science
Adviat is from Mumbai, India. He works on a project focusing on developing a segmetation model for identifying corn ears from a video footage collected on a combine harvester.
advaitt3@illinois.edu