Research

Our overarching goal is to develop low-cost open-source precision livestock farming solutions for cost-cautious livestock producers. In this project, we designed and fabricated a smart scale system allowing a producer to remotely monitor the ear tag ID and weight of animals. The measurement data were locally saved on a microSD card and posted on a cloud server with dashboards interacting with producers. 

Solid separation offers multiple benefits for livestock wastewater management. However, most existing flocculants/coagulatants are made from minerals or petroleum, carrying large carbon footprints. To promote the agricultural circular economy, we prepared natural flocculants from several agricultural by-products (e.g., cellulose and potato peels) and tested their performance for multiple livestock wastewater types as well as microalgae harvesting. 

Sponsored by a USGS 104b grant, this project aimed to provide an innovative solution for locating the areas of lake water potentially affected by hazardous algal bloom or fecal contamination. This was achieved by loading a gas sensor array on a drone and transmitting real-time smell data to a ground station and further to an Internet cloud server.