Alvaro Fuentes, Ph.D.

[EDITING] Call for papers: AI-powered plant monitoring. I am serving as Guest Editor for a new article collection in BMC Artificial Intelligence, “AI-powered plant monitoring.” We welcome research on the use of artificial intelligence in plant monitoring. Submissions are now open until December 19, 2025. 🔗 More info here!

I am teaching a Module on Business Intelligence for the Master of Business Administration program at the UTN in Ecuador, Nov-Dec, 2025.

I successfully organized the 4th International Workshop on AI in Agriculture at Jeonbuk National University, Nov 27-28, 2025. 

I became an editorial board member of the International Journal of Vegetable Science, Taylor & Francis, Nov. 2025.

I became an editorial board member of Discovery Plants, Springer, Nov. 2025.

[EDITING] I was a member of the Organizing Committee and Publicity Chair for the 1st International Conference on Sustainable and Intelligent Phytoprotection (ICSIP 2025), sponsored by Frontiers in Plant Science. Nanjing, China, November 15-16, 2025. Manuscript Summary Submission Deadline: April 10. Manuscript Submission Deadline: July 29. For more details:🔗 [Conference Website]🔗 [Research Topic in Frontiers in Plant Science].

[NEW PUBLICATION] My invited article on "Learning-to-Learn with AI: Framing AI as a Partner in Exploration, Creativity, and Lifelong Learning,” has been featured as expert advice in The University Grapevine’s Special AI Issue, Oct 28, 2025.  Read the issue here!

[NEW PUBLICATION] Our paper entitled "Hanwoo ReID: Multi-View Cattle Re-Identification with Pose-Aware Transformer Enhancements" has been published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Oct 2025.

[NEW PUBLICATION] I contributed an invited comment article titled "AI-Driven decisions for smarter, sustainable" to the International Journal of Vegetable Science (Taylor & Francis), published in Sept 2025.

[NEW PUBLICATION] Our paper entitled "Knowledge-Enhanced Deep Learning for Identity-Preserved Multi-Camera Cattle Tracking" has been published in Agriculture, Sept 2025.

I delivered an invited talk on Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and Robotics in Data-Driven Agriculture at the GKS Alumni Meeting in Panama, organized by the GKS Alumni Association, Panama, on Sept 19, 2025.

[NEW PUBLICATION] Our paper entitled "Enhancing anomaly detection in plant disease recognition with knowledge ensemble" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science, August 2025.

I had the privilege of hosting the visit of the 𝗞𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗢𝗟 𝗚𝘆𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗴𝗶 team for an interview on AI in Education in July 2025. Watch the full interview here.

I attended the International Symposium on Advanced Technologies and Management for Sustainable Greenhouse Systems GreenSys2025 in Almeria, Spain, in June 2025, where I delivered a featured presentation on "AI-Driven Autonomous Crop Monitoring with Multivariable Data Integration." 

[NEW PUBLICATION] Our paper entitled "Multi-Camera Fusion and Bird-Eye View Location Mapping for Deep Learning-based Cattle Behavior Monitoring" has been published in Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture, June 2025.

[NEW PUBLICATION] Our paper entitled "Comprehensive plant health monitoring: expert-level assessment with spatio-temporal image data" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science, May 2025.  

[AWARD] Our paper entitled "Multiview Monitoring of Individual Cattle Behavior Based on Action Recognition in Closed Barns Using Deep Learning," published in the journal Animals in 2023, has been honored with the Best Paper Award among all articles published that year. Link to the announcement: here!

[NEW PUBLICATION] Our paper entitled "Harnessing prototype networks for novel plant species and disease classification in open-world scenarios" has been published in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, May 2025.  

I participated in the Third World Z-inspection® Conference – Assessing Trustworthy AI in Practice at Seoul National University (SNU), Korea. I joined the panel discussion, "Why Does Trustworthy AI Matter? How Does It Relate to AI Regulation?", May 20-21, 2025. 

I participated as a featured speaker at the Korea TESOL International Conference, "Embracing Humanity in the Age of AI," on May 10-11, 2025, in Seoul, Korea.

I delivered a keynote talk on AI-Driven Advances in Autoimmune Disease Diagnosis at the International Conference on Biomedical Engineering Integration and Innovation Development, Wuhan, China, on May 10, 2025.

I taught a module on "Business Intelligence" as part of the Master of Business Administration program at UTN Ecuador in May-June 2025.

[NEW PUBLICATION] Our work entitled "Utilizing farm knowledge for indoor precision livestock farming: Time-domain adaptation of cattle face recognition," has been published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, March 2025.  

I delivered a webinar on "Artificial Intelligence in Business" at the Graduate School of Tecnica del Norte University, Ecuador, on February 12, 2025. 

I delivered a keynote talk on "Frontiers of AI and its Applications in Smart Agriculture" at the International Congress on University Development, Symposium on Engineering Science, hosted by Universidad Estatal de Quevedo, Ecuador, on January 23, 2025.

I became an Associate Editor at Frontiers in Plant Science - Sustainable and Intelligent Phytoprotection in January 2025.

I became an Invited Professor at the Postgraduate Institute, Tecnica del Norte University, Ecuador, and taught a module on "Business Intelligence" as part of the Master's in Business Administration in January-February 2025.

I delivered an online workshop on "Frontiers of AI in Education" for the KOTESOL Busan-Gyeongnam Chapter on January 16, 2025. This workshop builds on my presentation at the KOTESOL Fall Symposium 2024.

I served as the General Co-Chair of the Third International Workshop on "AI in Agriculture," held at Jeonbuk National University on November 21, 2024. During the event, I delivered a talk titled "Data-Driven Agriculture: Enhancing Crop Health and Efficiency with AI Technology."

I was invited by the Busan-Gyeongnam KOTESOL Chapter in Korea to participate in their upcoming symposium, "Fostering a Love of Education in an AI World." I delivered a workshop titled "Frontiers of AI in Education," where I explored how AI is transforming teaching and learning and discussed the opportunities and challenges it presents for educators.

I was invited by Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico, and the Colegio Mexicano de Ingenieros de Irrigación to deliver a keynote talk on "Embracing Limited and Imperfect Datasets in Modern Data-Driven Agriculture" on October 24, 2024. This presentation was part of the International Congress on Irrigation, Drainage, and Biosystems."

I was invited as a panelist at the Forum on Agro-Industries 4.0: Innovation and the Future of Agriculture in Panama. This event was part of the IX International Congress on Engineering, Science, and Technology (IESTEC), organized by the Technological University of Panama, IEEE Panama and Costa Rica sections. I delivered a talk on "AI, Robotics, and IoT in Data-Driven Agriculture," discussing how these technologies are shaping the future of sustainable farming practices" on Oct 23-25, 2024.

[New publication] Our new paper on "Visual information guided multi-modal model for plant disease anomaly detection" has been published in Scientific Reports, Sept 2024. 

[New publication] Our new paper on "The impact of fine-tuning paradigms on unknown plant diseases recognition" has been published in Scientific Reports, Aug 2024. 

I was interviewed by Teleamazonas, Ecuador's flagship TV channel, to discuss my experience with AI and its applications. Watch the full interview here.

I recently had a live-streaming conversation about AI, applications, and impact with Sherezade, a Spanish scientist and science blogger. Available on YouTube here.

I delivered an invited keynote speech at the International Congress of Applied Engineering and Innovative Technologies (AENIT 2024) at Universidad Técnica del Norte in Ecuador, on June 17 to 19, 2024.

I delivered an invited keynote speech at the II International Congress on Technology, Sustainability, and Educational Innovation (TSIE 2024) at Universidad Técnica del Norte in Ecuador, on June 19 to 21, 2024.

We successfully organized the Second International Workshop on AI in Agriculture at Jeonbuk National University on May 30-31, 2024.

I am a Program Committee Member of the upcoming 19th International Conference on Computer Science and Intelligence Systems FedCSIS 2024 (Thematic Track on AI for Agriculture), Belgrade, Serbia, Sept 8-11 2024. Submission deadline on May 28, 2024

Our Editorial: Advanced AI Methods for Plant Disease and Pest Recognition has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science, May 2024.

We attended the CGIAR Conference 2024 in Jeju, South Korea, from May 19-23, where I served as the Session Chair for Workgroup 3 on Machine Learning Applications in Biosystems Engineering. Additionally, I contributed with an oral presentation on animal behavior monitoring and a poster on plant growth estimation, both utilizing deep learning techniques. 

I had the pleasure of hosting a visit from Prof. Dr. Luis Miranda of Eberswalde University of Sustainable Development, Germany. He imparted a seminar about AI-based forestry management at the JBNU Core Research Institute of Intelligent Robots on May 16, 2014.

I completed 10 years living in South Korea (March 2014 ~)

I am collaborating as a Publisher Chair and Committee Member of the upcoming International Conference on Sustainable and Intelligent Photoprotection, China, December 2024.

I delivered an invited keynote presentation on Artificial Intelligence in Controlled-Environment Agriculture: Application, Challenges, and Opportunities at Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, Mexico on March 19, 2024.

I gave an interview to Monica, a Spanish Professor in Asia through her podcast channel "Una Profesora en Corea" about my experience living in South Korea. To listen to the interview in Spanish you can follow this link. 

I delivered an invited lecture on Deep Learning for Smart Agriculture: Application, Challenges, and Technical Opportunities at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), India on Jan 18, 2024.

Our paper "Improving Known–Unknown Cattle’s Face Recognition for Smart Livestock Farm Management" has been published in Animals (Nov 2023).

I am participating in the Pilot Study "Pilot Project: Assessing Trustworthiness of the use of Generative AI for higher Education. – Z-Inspection", as part of my rol at SNU. For this pilot project, we will assess the ethical, technical, domain-specific (i.e. education) and legal implications of the use of Generative AI-product/service within the university context.

I was invited to deliver a lecture on Deep Learning and its Applications, for undergraduate students of the School of International Engineering and Science, Jeonbuk National University, on November 27, 2023.

Our paper "Spatio-temporal characterization of crop growth with multi-category data based on deep learning" has been published in Acta Horticulture, as part of the Proceedings of the International Symposium on Innovative Technologies and Production Strategies for Sustainable Controlled Environment Horticulture (Oct 2023).

I was invited to deliver a Seminar on "Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development" at the Institute Tecnologico Superior Ibarra, in Ibarra Ecuador on November 1, 2023. 

I delivered an Invited  Seminar on "Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development with an emphasis on Environmental Education" at the Graduate School of the Technica del Norte University, in Ibarra Ecuador on October 28, 2023. 

I was honored to have been invited by the prestigious KBS World Radio in South Korea to participate in an interview about my experience in artificial intelligence. Here is the link to the interview conducted in Spanish language. (July 2023)

I delivered a Workshop on "Machine Learning and IoT for Smart Greenhouses" at the International Symposium on New Technologies for Sustainable Greenhouse Systems -GreenSys 2023  in Cancun, Mexico on October 24, 2023. 

Our paper "An Iterative Noisy Annotation Correction Model for Robust Plant Disease Detection" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science. (Oct. 2023).

Our paper "A New Deep Learning-based Dynamic Paradigm Towards Open-World Plant Disease Detection" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science. (Oct 10 2023).

Our paper "Embracing Limited and Imperfect Datasets: Opportunities and Challenges in Plant Stress Recognition Using Deep Learning" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science. (Sept 2023).

Our paper "Local refinement mechanism for improved plant leaf segmentation in cluttered backgrounds" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science (Aug 2023). 

Our paper "Deep Learning-based Multi-Cattle Tracking in Crowded Livestock Farming using Video" has been published in Computer and Electronics in Agriculture (July 2023). 

I was invited to deliver a presentation at the "International Congress of Design (Design UCE)" at the Central University of Ecuador in Quito, Ecuador. I will talk on Current Trends in Vision and Artificial Intelligence: Applications to Industrial Design", on June 28, 2023.

Our paper "Multiview Monitoring of Individual Cattle Behavior based on Action Recognition in Closed-Barns using Deep Learning" has been published in Animals (June 2023). 

Our paper "Embrace Limited and Imperfect Training Datasets: Opportunities and Challenges in Plant Disease Recognition Using Deep Learning" has been released as a pre-print publication (May 2023). 

I was invited to deliver a keynote presentation at the "2nd IEEE International Conference on Vision Towards Emerging Trends in Communication and Networking Technologies (ViTECoN)" at the Vellore Institute of Technology, India on May 5th - 6th, 2023. 

I delivered a webinar on "Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture: Challenges and Practical Implementations" at the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, sponsored by IEEE-R9 Panama, on April 31, 2023.

I delivered a talk on "Technological development and its contribution to education: current trends and future prospects" at the International Seminar on Quality of Education within the framework of the SDGs at the Tecnica del Norte University, Ecuador, on March 31, 2023.

I am serving as a guest editor for the special issue on "Advanced AI Methods for Plant Disease and Pest Recognition" in the Frontiers in Plant Science Journal.  Deadline for manuscript submissions:  15 October 2023. 

I am serving as a guest editor for the special issue on "Tools and Techniques for Monitoring Pests and Diseases in Agro-Ecosystem" in the Agronomy MDPI Journal. Deadline for manuscript submissions:  10 October 2023. 

I participated in the 29th International Workshop on Frontiers of Computer Vision in Yeosu, South Korea on Feb 20-21, 2023. We presented a poster on "Cattle Action Recognition with Multi-Viewpoint Cameras based on Deep Learning".

I became a fellow of the Trustworthy AI Lab at Seoul National University. 

Our paper "A Comprehensive Survey of Image Augmentation Techniques for Deep Learning" has been published in Pattern Recognition (Jan. 2023). 

Our paper on "Data-centric annotation analysis for plant disease detection: Strategy, consistency, and performance" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science. (Dec. 2022). 

I delivered an online talk on "Deep Learning-based Plant Disease Recognition" at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). The Netherlands, Oct 27, 2022.

Our paper on "Multi-Cattle tracking with appearance and motion models in closed barns using deep learning" has been published in the Smartmedia Journal (Sept 2022). 

I started a new position as a Research Professor at the Core Research Institute of Intelligent Robots, Jeonbuk National University, in September 2022.

Our paper "Towards Improved Performance on Plant Disease Recognition with Symptoms Specific Annotation" has been published in the Smartmedia Journal (May 2022). 

I participated in the International Symposium on Innovative Technologies and Production Strategies for Sustainable Controlled Environment Horticulture, and III International Symposium on Mechanization, Precision Horticulture, and Robotics: Precision and Digital Horticulture in Field Environments, in Angers - France, in August 2022 (link).

Our paper on "Style-Consistent Image Translation: A Novel Data Augmentation Paradigm to Improve Plant Disease Recognition" has been published in Frontiers in Plant Science (Feb 2022).

Our paper on "Open Set Self and Across Domain Adaptation for Tomato Disease Recognition with Deep Learning Techniques" has been published in the Frontiers in Plant Science Journal (Dec 2021).

Our paper on "Improving Accuracy of Tomato Plant Disease Diagnosis based on Deep Learning with Explicit Control of Hidden Classes" has been accepted for publication in the Frontiers in Plant Science Journal (Dec 2021). A compiled version of the book can be found here. 

I delivered a talk on "Deep Learning and IoT for Smart Agriculture" in the FDP on Recent Advances in Optical Communication and Wireless Networks at SRM University, India, in May 2022. 

I delivered a talk on "El Enfoque Educativo en Corea del Sur: Estrategias de enseñanza e investigación" (Spanish) at I Jornadas de Capacitación y Fortalecimiento de la Gestión Docente Yachay Tech 2022. Yachay Tech University - Ecuador, February 23, 2022. 

I delivered a lecture on "Deep Learning and Computer Vision" to students of the Master's program in Mechatronics at the Technical University of the North, Ecuador, on January 5, 2022.

I delivered a talk on "New Paradigm for Sustainable Development: Artificial Intelligence and its Applications" at the Graduate School of the Technical University of the North, Ecuador, on January 7, 2022.

I delivered a talk on "Innovation in Smart Farming: Deep Learning-based Techniques for Plant Diseases Recognition" at the Workshop on "New Paradigm for Sustainable Development in Agriculture: Mathematics and AI Get into the Field"- Dec 3, 2021 - University of Milan, Italy. 

I participated as a committee member and speaker at the First International Workshop on Deep Learning and Intelligent Robots in Agriculture, organized by JBNU (South Korea) and Tianjin University (China). October 29, 2021. 

I delivered a talk at the International Seminar on Competencies for Sustainable Development at the Technical University of the North, Ecuador.  October 22, 2021. 

Our publication on  Instance-Level Image Translation with a Local Discriminator has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Access Journal. Aug 2021.

I obtained a grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) 2021-2024 for my research on deep learning-based characterization of multi-category data for crop growth. 

We obtained a patent for our work on Cattle behavior automatic recognition and monitoring based on Deep Learning / 딥러닝을 이용한 가축행동 자동인식 및 모니터링 시스템 및 그 방법. Issued on Jan 01, 2021. Patent issuer: Korea, Number: 10-2021-0007173