Professional History

The following is a brief history of my professional experience. In February 2019 I joined the University of Bonn (Germany) as a Full Professor leading the area of Agricultural Robotics and Engineering. During that time I've become spokesperson (lead) for a €2 million DFG AI Research Unit as well as a Principal Investigator for the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence and the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. From 2014-2018 I was a Researcher and Senior Researcher at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) working on Computer Vision problems applied to Agricultural applications. From 2012-2014 I worked as a Researcher at NICTA on Environmental Computer. From 2008-2012 I was a post-doctoral research at the Idiap Research Institute working in the Biometrics group led by Sebastien Marcel. I previously completed my PhD and Bachelors of Engineering (Electronics) and Information Technology at QUT.

Grants and Projects

Below are some of the projects that I've worked on.

• 2023-present: Principal Investigator at the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

• 2022-present: Spokesperson (lead) of the AID4Crops DFG AI Research Unit.

• 2022-present: Efficient and Adaptively Scalable Networks within PhenoRob.

• 2021-present: WeedAI to automatically evaluate the efficacy of weeding systems using Artificial Intelligence (funded by BMEL).

• 2020-present: Precision Weed Management within PhenoRob.

• 2020-2021: Automated Monitoring and Decision Making for High Value Crops (funded by Uni. Bonn, TRA-6). 

• 2019-present: Principal Investigator in the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence.

• 2015-2018. I led QUT's contribution to the Horticulture Innovation Australia project on “Vision, sensing and sensor networks to manage risks and increase productivity in vegetable production systems”.

• 2014-2017. I led the development of Computer Vision algorithms for the Strategic Investment in Farm Robotics (SIFR).

• 2011-2012. I worked on the Tabula Rasa project which as a European Commission Framework Programme 7 project which is examining anti-spoofing techniques for biometric systems (face, gait, speech and many more).

• 2008-2011. I worked on the Mobile Biometry (MOBIO) project as a Work Package Manager. This was a European Commission Framework Programme 7 project on applying Biometrics, face and speaker recognition, to mobile devices (phones). During this time we captured the MOBIO database and made a few demonstrations of our work.

Supervision

I currently supervise the following PhD students:

• Shuangman Han (2023-present)

• Esra Güclü (2023-present)

• Maohui Li (2022‑present)

• Patrick Zimmer (2021-present) 

• Claus Smitt (2020‑present)

• Alireza Ahmadi (2020‑present)

Some of the people that I've helped to supervise:

• PhD Supervisor (Associate): David Hall (2014 - 2018) 

• PhD Supervisor (Principal): ZongYuan Ge (2013 - 2017) [Assoc. Prof. at Monash University]

• PhD Co-supervisor (along with Sebastien Marcel) of Cosmin Atanasoaei 2008-2012 (successfully defended in April, 2012).

• Co-supervised Teodora Kostic (Internship Student) during her time at Idiap Research Institute in 2011.

• Co-supervised Jordi Sanchez-Riera (Internship Student) during his time at Idiap Research Institute in 2008-2009.