ICON Panel: Automation, Electrification, and Precision Technology that are Redefining Construction and Agriculture

This panel features researchers from John Deere and Purdue ICON discussing how automation, electrification and precision technologies redefine construction and agriculture.

Agenda: Panel Discussion (9:00am-10:30am), Meeting with ICON faculty (10:30am-11:00am)

Zoom Link: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/s/96045838308

Panelists: 

Dr. Scott Johnson is a senior control systems engineer for power electronics at John Deere. He develops new algorithms for precision agriculture, hybrid vehicles, and vehicle power management. He is passionate about the latest control methods including reinforcement learning, model predictive control, adaptive control, and more. Prior to John Deere, he received an MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering at Purdue University studying observer design for switched systems.  

Dr. Brij Singh is Region 4 Manager External Relationships and John Deere Fellow in Power Electronics Engineering. Brij supports and leads John Deere relations with R4 universities, non-compete industries, and government entities including national laboratories. Prior to Joining his present position in the Emerging Technology organization in JD Intelligent Solution Group, Brij has led US Department of Energy funded project and developed extremely-power-dense, high-efficiency, engine-coolant-capable Silicon Carbide (SiC) inverter and test-verified this inverter in the John Deere 644K Hybrid Loader. Since 2007, Brij has developed inverters for JD 644K and 944K Hybrid Loaders and these inverters have experienced 10s of million aggregate field hours with no failures. Prior to John Deere, Brij was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering in Tulane University, New Orleans.

Mark Chaney is leading the Automation Delivery teams at the Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) at John Deere. He started his career with John Deere in the summer of 1996 and spent the summer supporting experimental combine development. Mark then spent the next 22 years in various roles throughout Harvesting Product Development starting with FEE as a design/test engineer, Tier 3 combine engine platform team, PV&V lead for 70 Series Cab & Electrical, Team Leader for Harvesting Biomass Solutions, Combine Advanced Functional Team Lead, Body Team Leader, Farm Sight Engineering Manager, Global Advanced Engineering Manager for Crop Harvesting, then in late 2018 moved to ISG to his current role transforming our capability and capacity to deliver highly automated solutions for our customers. Prior to Deere, Mark had work experiences such as; experimental seed development, farming, equipment operator, land surveying, and with the USDA as a research assistant. Mark has a BS in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Prof. Greg Shaver  is a Full Professor, University Faculty Scholar, College of Engineering Early Career Research Award recipient, and ASME Fellow. He joined the Purdue Faculty in 2006. He is focused on creating challenging, interesting, relevant, career-launching research and learning opportunities for Purdue students. His research program is dedicated to clean, safe, and efficient commercial vehicles " via advanced diesel & natural gas engine systems/controls, powertrain electrification, and vehicle automation/connectivity. His efforts are well known in the industry and regulatory agencies. As an example, his research has enabled greater compression ignition (CI) engine efficiency and emissions control through variable valve actuation (VVA). Prof. Shavers research on VVA was heavily cited, and promoted, in June 2020 by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) as well as in Jan. 2020 by the EPA with respect to new emission standards for heavy-duty engines. These rule changes will carry significant long-term impacts for the environment, as industry leaders such as Cummins, Eaton, and many others, adopt these standards in their engine technologies and export them globally. Greg's students have published more than 130 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. Greg has directed the research efforts of more than 135 current/former Purdue students (62 graduate, 75 undergraduate). Of his 47 former graduate students (18 PhD, 29 MSME) one-fourth are women, more than half are now working at industry partner companies, and two are tenure-track faculty (1 assistant, 1 associate). As a member of the Purdue faculty, Greg has acquired $17.6M in research funding for projects that he has also led. $13.3M (of the $17.6M) has been for direct use within his own research team, and $8.6M (of the $17.6M) has been funding directly from industry partner companies (including John Deere ($1.4M), Cummins ($4.9M), Eaton ($1.4M), and Caterpillar ($0.5M)). Federal funding sources include DOE (EERE & ARPA-E), DOT, NSF, and EPA. Greg earned graduate (PhD 2005, MSME 2004) and undergraduate (BSME 2000 w/ highest distinction) degrees from Stanford and Purdue, respectively. His research is currently funded by DOE (2), Cummins, Eaton, and Deere (2).

Prof. Hubo Cai is a Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of Construction Engineering and Management at Purdue University. Dr. Cai’s main research interest is in engineering informatics and construction automation towards smart construction. One of his recent endeavors is the integration of sensing and augmented reality (AR) visualization to monitor and control the excavation operation for safe urban excavation. Dr. Cai has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. He is an associate editor of ASCE’s Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering and Chair of the Data, Sensing and Analysis (DSA) committee. Funding sources include NSF, FHWA, and state DOTs. Dr. Cai received his Ph.D. (2004) and MSCE (2002) in Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University and his Bachelor’s degree from Tongji University

Prof. Jian Jin received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from Iowa State University in 2009. He earned his M.S. degree in Computer Engineering from Denmark Technical University in 2005 and his B.S. degree in Computer Science from Zhejiang University in 2003. Prior to joining Purdue, he conducted research at DuPont Pioneer (now Corteva), where he was most recently a Technology Leader working on automatic phenotyping and sensing and led a team for the company’s hyperspectral imaging systems for automated plant screening. Dr. Jin’s major research interest at Purdue is to build the next generation automatic crop plant phenotyping systems, along with machine vision, data processing, statistics, and big data modeling. He also has interests in other areas of agricultural sensing, broadly defined, and in automation and robotics in agriculture.