Alvaro Fuentes Ph.D.

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