Contact: For information, contact Shelby Warner at warner80@msu.edu or 517-884-7076.
Precision livestock farming (PLF) consists of applying technology within the animal space for automated and real-time decision-making at the individual animal level in livestock production. A low-cost, non-invasive technology that holds great promise for further advancing PLF is computer vision (CV). CV enables task automation by using computers to understand and extract important features of a physical system from digital images or videos.
Our group is developing a NIFA-Funded Coordinated Innovation Network to: 1) advance CV applications in PLF, 2) attract top talent from engineering, computer science and animal science to PLF, and 3) create a synergetic network of professionals working to solve pressing issues in PLF. To address these needs, we propose the following main objectives.
One of the activities that we are pursuing is this webinar series. The monthly webinars will include presentations on current topics in computer vision and its application to precision livestock farming. The webinars combine presentation and ‘unconference’ discussions to showcase diverse perspectives and evolving knowledge related to computer vision and precision livestock farming. Moreover, these webinars stimulate and create opportunities for discussion that will inform current and future research and provide learning opportunities for trainees.
AUGUST'S SPEAKER - Suresh Neethirajan, PhD.
Suresh Neethirajan is a Europe based Canadian Professor, inventor, consultant and award-winning researcher in the field of Digital Livestock Farming. Suresh graduated recently in 2022 with a certificate in Applied Data Science from the reputed MIT, USA. He obtained both his MSc and PhD in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Manitoba upon which, completed two NSERC postdoctoral fellowships from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of the USA and the National Food Research Institute of Japan. Having worked at the Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands and the University of Guelph in Canada as an Associate Professor in the Animal Science & Bioengineering domain, Suresh brings a multitude of academic and industrial experiences for solving practical problems in the agri-food sector. His expertise includes—but is not limited to—improving animal health with Artificial Intelligence-powered farming, unlocking unparalleled performance with Big Data and Artificial Intelligence-driven insights, and harnessing the power of AI to improve livestock farming. By using Big Data Analytics and AI-powered decision support systems, he believes -we can optimize decision-making in the agri-food and animal farming industry.
