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Title
Optical Engineering in Plant Phenotyping and Plant Biophotonics
Abstract
Optical sensing is at the forefront of many scientific fields. As such, a key strength of optics as a discipline is our ability to leverage it for interdisciplinary convergence research. With this in mind, much of my recent effort has focused on translational sensing at the forefront of agricultural decision support and plant sciences research. In this presentation, I will highlight a few sensor development and research projects spanning fundamental optical sensing to more practical (embedded) data collection systems. These include using imaging polarimeters in plant phenotyping and remote sensing for glare (bidirectionality) correction, as well as supporting life science researchers and commercial stakeholders in providing plant phenomic data, and deep learning models, to support their downstream decision processes. I will also discuss my future vision regarding the use of an emerging field - Decision Intelligence (DI) - to understand stakeholder and researcher decision workflows. Unlike traditional AI projects, the nascent field of DI uses a stakeholder-first and outcome-focused approach to better understand if, and if so where, AI models and sensors are needed to help reach specific outcomes. How this supports optical technology development and co-production will also be highlighted.
Bio
Michael Kudenov obtained his BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2005 and his PhD in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona in 2009. He is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University. His research interests focus on imaging spectrometer and polarimeter sensors for applications spanning agriculture, optical plant phenotyping, and quality control. He also serves as the academic advisor for the NC State SPIE student chapter, is a SPIE Fellow, and is a member of the NC State Plant Sciences Initiative.