People
Principal Investigator
Sunoj Shajahan
Assistant Professor
Sunoj was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, India. His research interests are in precision agriculture, remote sensing, and geospatial data analysis. During his PhD, he developed a few open-source tools using ImageJ to process and analyze field imagery, which also was the starting point in FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). As a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, he worked on integrating remote sensing and data analysis to predict crop yield at scale. In Fall 2023, he joined University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he started the Digital Precision Agriculture Lab. His lab focuses on advancing precision technologies and building data-driven, geospatial solutions that support practical decision-making in agriculture.
sunoj@illinois.edu | |
Assistant Professor
Sunoj was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, India. His research interests are in precision agriculture, remote sensing, and geospatial data analysis. During his PhD, he developed a few open-source tools using ImageJ to process and analyze field imagery, which also was the starting point in FOSS (Free and Open Source Software). As a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, he worked on integrating remote sensing and data analysis to predict crop yield at scale. In Fall 2023, he joined University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he started the Digital Precision Agriculture Lab. His lab focuses on advancing precision technologies and building data-driven, geospatial solutions that support practical decision-making in agriculture.
sunoj@illinois.edu | |
Graduate students
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
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