Dr. Heilman Morales is a plant breeder with extensive experience in academic and seed industry agricultural data management research. In her current role she leads a team of data scientists and software engineers in the development and implementation of innovative data management and analytic strategies for the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Agricultural Experiment Station (AES). She holds a Ph.D. in Plant Sciences from NDSU, a M.Sc. in Biological Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM), and a B.Sc. in Biology from Universidad del Valle (Univalle), Colombia .

Her goal is to support the development of automated data tools and analytical solutions to modernize the ND AES agricultural digital solutions, focusing on integrating data management practices, statistical analysis, machine learning, and data coming from remote sensing technologies.

Dr. Casey is an accomplished soil physicist and hydrologist, and is the Associate Director for the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) at NDSU. In his role he administers the main campus and outstate research efforts in agriculture, food systems and natural resources.  Additionally, he is responsible for leading the ongoing development and implementation of the Big Data Pipeline Unit.

Dr. Casey earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut in 1993. He then pursued graduate studies at Iowa State University, earning a master's degree in Soil Science with a focus on Soil Physics in 1996, and a Ph.D. in Soil Science with a specialization in Soil Physics and Water Resources in 2000. Throughout his research career, Dr. Casey has always taken an interest in interdisciplinary research. His research covers microscale to field scale, involves extensive collaborations from across many disciplines, and combines dirty hands with differential equations. 

Dr. Richard Horsley is a highly accomplished plant breeder and Head of the Department of Plant Sciences at NDSU.

He provides technical and administrative advice for the Big Data Pipeline Unit on topics related with agronomy, plant breeding, statistical analysis, and technology implementation.

Dr. Horsley  holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy and a M.Sc. in Agronomy from North Dakota State University, and a B.Sc. in Agronomy from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Horsley's research focuses on the genetics and breeding of spring barley, with a particular emphasis on developing varieties with improved yield, disease resistance, seed dormancy and high quality for the malting and brewing industries. Over the course of his career, he has released numerous barley varieties that have had a significant impact on the agricultural industry in North America.

Souradip is leading the development of data infrastructure, data management and software development for its use in research and business-essential analytics.

Souradip holds a B. Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Kolkata, India. He received a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Computer Science at NDSU. His area of research is building AI solutions utilizing Machine Learning and Deep Learning models using technology such as Tensorflow, Scikit-Learn, and Statsmodel. His AI solutions have use cases in Chatbot, Intrusion Detection, Anomaly Detection and Time Series data. 

He has four and half years of experience in developing web applications and web services using frameworks such as Django (Python), Express (Nodejs), React, SQL Server, and PostGres. 

Vimlesh provides technical leadership in the development of web applications that align with our extension vision and mission of empowering North Dakotans through science-based education. He is dedicated to enhancing our technological landscape by crafting reliable and efficient software solutions, implementing responsive design strategies, and exploring cutting-edge technologies. Vimlesh's goal is to streamline processes, improve user experience, and facilitate the seamless dissemination of science-based information, particularly in the realm of big data analytics. 

Vimlesh holds a B.Sc. in Electronics and Telecommunications from Pune University, India, and earned his M.Sc. in Computer Science from NDSU in 2022. With over 5 years of experience in application development and project management, his prior work with the North Dakota Highway Patrol and the North Dakota Department of Transportation has equipped him with valuable insights that will undoubtedly benefit our Extension team. 

Dr. Sikiru Atanda is a highly skilled quantitative geneticist and plant breeder with over six years of experience in developing predictive models for complex traits in various important crops. He has a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Quantitative Genetics from the University of Ghana, where his research focused on developing protocols for genomic selection in the CIMMYT Tropical Maize Breeding Program in collaboration with Dr. Kelly Robbins' lab at Cornell and the CIMMYT Biostatistics Unit.

Dr. Atanda's expertise includes using cutting-edge statistics, machine learning, and quantitative genetics theory to develop predictive models. Prior to joining our team, he worked as a postdoctoral associate at the CIMMYT Global Wheat breeding program in El Batan, Mexico, and in Dr. Bandillo's lab at North Dakota State University.

In his current role, Dr. Atanda will be responsible for developing quantitative genetic models and procedures to enable the use of phenotypic, genotypic and UAS high-throughput data. His work will help breeding programs, agronomist, animal scientist, and Ag Biosystems Engineers in the integration of analytical models to improve the overall quality of their analytical programs.

Didier Murillo Florez is a highly skilled mathematician and statistician with experience in mixed model analysis, R programming, design of experiments, data mining, and statistical modeling. He holds a M.Sc. in Statistics from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Tolima, Colombia.

Currently, Didier is the head statistician and software developer at the ND AES Big Data Pipeline Unit. He is responsible for leading the development of various tools, including FielD·Hub, Athena AI, ExLibris, and APIs that connect with our tools. These tools are instrumental in supporting the research activities at the ND AES.

With his expertise in R-Shiny projects, statistical modeling, and data analysis, Didier plays a critical role in helping our team and users to achieve their research goals. He is a valuable member of the team and continues to make significant contributions to the success of our research program.

Lane is our software/hardware IT guru and cybersecurity specialist. He provides support for administrating research servers, Hyper-V and VM set up within our premise servers and in the cloud. Additionally, he provides support for our database and reporting tools, creating protocols and scripts that facilitate the automation of data backups and connectivity. Lane is currently working on a bachelor's degree in Cyber Operations & M.Sc. in Computer Science from Dakota State University, South Dakota. 

As a consultant for the team, David is focused on team and product strategy as well data and software architecture.  He brings 35+ years of technical leadership experience in the software industry to the team, including nearly 20 years in software development roles at Microsoft.

 In recent years, David's focus has been on data related topics.  He graduated with an M.Sc. in Data Science from the University of Wisconsin in 2019 and started his analytics consulting company, Lake Data Insights, in 2021.  In addition to consulting, David leads the industry focused Capstone program for the NDSU Computer Science department and teaches the Introduction to Data Engineering course for the department.

Joshua provides expertise to conduct research, development and testing for Internet of Things (IoT) systems and related technologies for related agricultural applications.

He holds a B.Sc. with the highest distinction in Integrated Science and M.Sc. in Biological Systems Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With  over 3 years of experience designing and developing embedded systems for agricultural applications, Joshua has a comprehensive understanding of software and hardware interaction in the realm of IoT, robotics and automation, as well as wireless communication technologies that power IoT devices.

Utsha Saha specializes in researching, developing, and maintaining data infrastructure and pipelines for the Ag Data Analytics team, with a particular focus on IoT devices. His work is crucial in enabling precision agriculture, empowering researchers and consumer alike.

Before joining NDSU for his Master's degree, he accumulated over three years of experience as a data engineer, where he developed, consulted and led various projects. He earned s B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from American International University - Bangladesh and a M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from NDSU. His research interests lie at the intersection of bioinformatics, machine learning and data engineering. Beyond bioinformatics, he is also exploring the application of artificial intelligence in advancing research within the medical and agricultural fields.

Matheus Siqueira Souza has a B.Sc. in Aeronautics Science from FUMEC University, Brazil, and a B.Sc in Computer Sciences from NDSU. Currently pursuing a M.Sc. in Computer Science at NDSU. 

Matheus is passionate about UAVs and machine learning, as well as building full-stack solutions in our team. His goal is to explore how these fields can intersect to innovate and solve real-world challenges in the Ag ecosystem. 

He is the main developer of AGSkySight, a software that automates the entire UAV image pipeline workflow, encompassing image stitching, shapefile generation for plot identification, and vegetation index extraction. This application centralizes computing resources, relieving our users of the computational burden. 

Grant Hoff is a software developer who is focused on data engineering and full-stack web development.

His contributions include the development of the web-based data querying tool ExLibris, as well the data pipeline and backend services that the ExLibris depends on. Grant works to ensure that experiment data can be reliably and efficiently retrieved, viewed, and analyzed by crop researchers.

He has a B.Sc. in Computer Science and a minor in Statistics from North Dakota State University, and is passionate about building software that is simple, useful, and accessible.