Gwendolyn is currently a master's student in Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon.  She received her bachelors degree from Carnegie Mellon in 2009.  Gwendolyn grew up in apple country, and thus knows the value of a freshly picked apple of the correct variety.  She has previously done
summer research in agriculture at Cornell University.

Gwendolyn enjoys wearing cloaks and living as an ordinary radical.

Tara Baugher joined the Penn State Cooperative Extension horticulture team in 2004.
Specialty crop initiatives include:
•Developing risk management strategies to increase orchard profitability and management efficiency.
•Working with industry groups to develop a road map for retooling mid-Atlantic orchard enterprises.
•Conducting research trials and educational programs on improving environmental protection, natural resource conservation and social responsibility in orchard systems.
•Collaborating with grower associations and government representatives to increase industry leadership.

I am currently a Systems Scientist at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. I manage projects for the Autonomous Helicopter Laboratory and Field Robotics Center. Previously I was Innovation Manager at Genius Institute of Technology in Brazil (2001-2005) and Coordinator of the Robotics and Computer Vision Laboratory in Campinas, Brazil (1997-2001). I got my Ph.D. (1996) from Carnegie Mellon and my electrical engineering M.Sc. (1992) and bachelor's (1990) degrees from the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Cannons recently completed a doctorate in 2008 from UCSD with her thesis, Topics in Network Communications. Her focus was in the areas of network coding and wireless sensor networks. 
She received her MS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002 with the submission of her thesis, Optimal Detection of Multiplicative Watermarks Using Image Hashes.

Katie Ellis joined Penn state Cooperative Extension in February 2009 as the Ag Innovations for Specialty Crops Educator. She has a B.S. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in Entomology from Penn State University. Katie has research experience in insect pests of field, forage, and tree fruit crops.

Scientist: Integrated Orchard Management for Deciduous Tree Fruit Crops.  The area of research is soil-water management and soil-plant-water relations in fruit production.  The research focuses on the response of fruit and shoot growth to chemical and physical changes in the plant environment.  The research will develop (1) management systems that more efficiently utilize the environmental resources (2) production systems that minimize pesticide usage.

Project Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, Ben leads the Information Management and Decision Making System area. He has been working to develop a multi-sensor unit that can collect, process, and represent large, complex data sets in a manner that supports rapid awareness, interpretation, and action. The data reveals eviromental and canopy conditions.

Hamner is  a research programmer at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, Feild Robotics Center. He has a solid background in robotics and has been associated with several research projects at CMU that include: Autonomous Mobile Assembly, Distributed Robot Architectures, EMBER, and Xavier. Brad has been a great asset to our field research and demonstrations of the APM.

Jorge Heraud has experience in multiple engineering areas and specialties:
GPS, GNSS, RTK, Precision Agriculture, Automatic vehicle guidance
Digital Electronics, Wireless, Satellite communication, Computer Architecture

He received a MS in Electrical Engineering in 1995 with an emphasis placed on Computer Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management in 1996 from Stanford University.

Gwen-Alyn Hoheisel has been a Benton/Franklin County Extension Educator since September 2006, helping local citizens with questions about viticulture, tree fruit, and high-value specialty crops.

I'm currently working towards my PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.  I'm a Graduate Research Assistant at the Purdue Robot Vision Laboratory.  My research interest are  robotics visual servoing, measurement and automation technologies.

Extension programs include developing expert systems for grower use; implementing integrated pest management programs for deciduous tree fruits; and providing information and recommendations for the control of deciduous tree fruit pests.
Currently, Larry is working on the design of an electronic trap that will have wireless capabilities to report immediately if an internal feeding moth has entered the trap. Early intervention is key in controlling such pest as the codling moth.

Areas of research activity include pest management in orchard systems, insect population dynamics, importance of landscape-level dispersal on IPM and biological control, sampling systems, biological control, agricultural acarology, effect of introduced pests on natural and agro-ecosystems, mechanisms of mating disruption, demography of insect populations.

Native of Indiana, I received a Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2003 in horticultural trade and marketing.  While at Purdue, I studied the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary regulations on fruit and vegetable trade and taught classes in marketing and management principles for horticultural businesses.  In addition to my training in agribusiness, I have a B.S. in Landscape Management and a M.S. in Plant Physiology.

My responsibilities at the NWREC include developing and updating enterprise budgets, applied research in production economics, and presenting at workshops and short-courses.  I will also be involved in outreach to individuals in the North Willamette and Mid-Columbia region helping them develop a better understanding of their market and the economics of their operation.

Kak is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University whose interests are sensor networks and networking, security and sensor networks. Kak's focus is in data abstractions and control abstractions and their subsequental modeled applications in programming languages as they lend organization to software so that it can be extended and maintained easily.

The control of dynamical systems becomes increasingly important as the era of robotics research dominated by quasi-static machines rapidly comes to a close. Similarly, the importance of state estimation grows as robotic applications require robots to function in larger, more complex environments. My research addresses both of these issues by focusing on the dual problems of controlling robotic mechanisms with non-trivial dynamics and perceiving the state of world through indirect measurements. My approach is both analytical and experimental: I use mathematics to understand the physical behavior of a given system and then use that understanding to create algorithms for control or estimation. I strive to develop new theoretical concepts and translate them into real-world implementations that solve problems such as balancing an unstable robot or estimating the location of an autonomous vehicle.

Prior to joining the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in 2005, James was a Senior Engineer at John Deere where his research focused on optical sensing of the reflectance of plant canopies for site-specific crop management by assessing crop nutrient stress. He developed a real-time multi-spectral imaging system to predict plant nutrient status based on leaf reflectance. He also worked as a System Integration Engineer in field robotics and autonomous navigation projects to develop unmanned vehicles for lawn and turf applications. His Ph.D. work was dedicated to the development of a multi-spectral image sensor to assess nitrogen stress of corn crop and conducted in cooperation with Case Corporation, where he formulated corrections for robust reflectance response under varying natural ambient illumination.

Bill Kleiner joined Penn State Cooperative Extension in 1981 as an agriculture and 4-H educator, serving in Lackawanna and Clearfield counties. From 1986 to 1988, he was a diagnostician in Penn State’s Plant Disease Clinic while earning his master’s degree in plant pathology.
In 1988, he moved to Adams County to conduct extension education programs for commercial and home fruit growers in a seven- county region. He became Adams County extension director in 1996 and is currently pursuing his doctorate in agricultural and extension education.

Kleiner was the first Penn State Cooperative Extension Director’s Administrative Leadership Fellow. He has served in leadership positions for and has been honored by several professional organizations of which he is a member.

Founder and COO, Tony is responsible for operations, mechanical and electrical engineering, and coordinating with VRC's partners. Founder of CyberGear, Inc., a virtual reality exercise bike company. Conceived, designed, and built a VR product line of interactive fitness equipment. Involved in acquisition of CyberGear by Tectrix Fitness Equipment. Senior Director of Engineering at Tectrix/Cybex International before and after Cybex acquired Tectrix. Senior Engineer Consultant with Design Continuum. Designed products ranging from surgical devices and industrial servo controllers to the Reebok pump shoe. Co-winner of 1992 Industrial Design Excellence Awards (sponsored by Business Week and presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America) for Rollerblade's Metroblade inline skates and for Spaldings' Airflex pump baseball glove. B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Research activities and interests include integrated pest management in agricultural ecosystems, integrated fruit production methods, biology and control of tree fruit insect pests, pesticide resistance management in agricultural ecosystems, phytophagous and predatory mite management in orchard ecosystems, insect rearing techniques/laboratory bioassays.

Art Lange received his PhD from Stanford in 1974. He has worked with GPS systems for agriculture applications since joining Trimble in 1985.

Areas of expertise include tree fruit production, farm labor management, workforce training and education, employer and employee relations. Karen has won numerous award for her work from national associations.

I'm currently working towards my PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.  I'm a Graduate Research Assistant at the Purdue Robot Vision Laboratory.  My research interest are Computer Vision, Image Processing and Pattern Recognition.

Dana Lonn is the Director for TORO’s Center for Advanced Turf Technology, a cross-functional team of engineers and agronomists dedicated to developing cutting-edge technologies in turf care. Lonn is most noted for his innovation in “going green” and leading TORO’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Project. Lonn brings his experience and direction to work with customers, academic leaders and industry experts to develop solutions that could emerge as breakthrough products to the project.

Jim earned his doctorate in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982.

From 1983-1988, Dr. McFerson worked as a vegetable breeder for private seed company, and from 1989-1998 Jim was a Research Geneticist with USDA Ag Research Service at Cornell University in Geneva NY.

Jim has been the manager of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission since 1999, and is also an adjunct faculty member with WSU’s Horticulture Department.

McFerson has been active in pursuing the National Tree Fruit Technology Roadmap and many industry research groups:
- Rosaceous Genomics, Genetics, and Breeding Executive Committee
- Tree Fruit Technical Advisory Committee
- Prunus, Pyrus, and Malus Crop Germplasm Committees
- US Apple Research Committee Specialty Crops Research Team.

Dr. Bruce McPheron serves as the Dean of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, effective 1 July, 2009. A professor of Entomology, he was Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Director of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station in the College of Agricultural Sciences from March 2002–June 2009. McPheron received his B. S. degree from The Ohio State University and his M. S. and Ph. D. degrees from the University of Illinois. He spent three years working as a county extension educator in Clermont County, Ohio between graduate degrees, and he held a postdoctoral appointment at Louisiana State University before joining the Penn State faculty in 1988.

I am a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Electical and Computer Engineering. My B.S. degree was obtained in 1985 from M.I.T. in mathematics. My most memorable moment at M.I.T. was finishing second in the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Class 2.70 Introduction to Design contest. Following that brush with near greatness, I worked extensively in the Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation.

M.S. and Ph.D. degrees were obtained in 1989 and 1992 respectively from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley with specialization in controls.

Since 1993 I have been working at CMU, where my work concentrates in controls related to data storage system and robotics. I currently lead the research in servo controls for the Data Storage Systems Center an Engineering Research Center sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation.

Derek Morikawa's career has included being the founder of, Runaway Ideas, a management and technology consulting company, President of RD Instruments of San Diego, a leading manufacturer of advanced underwater sonar instrumentation for current measurement and navigation and President ofWavetek Corporation of San Diego, a multi-national electronics company specializing in communications test equipment for CATV, LAN's, Fiber Optics, and Cell Phones and Marketing Manager Hewlett Packard Microwave Instrumentation Division. He received an MBA from Harvard and Computer Science and Engineering Degree from MIT.

Plant pathologist and Penn State Assistant Professor, Henry Ngugi’s interests are biology, ecology, and integrated management of flower-infecting pathogens; integrated management of tree fruit diseases; as well as plant disease epidemiology. Additionally, Ngugi was recognized as one of President Graham Spanier’s 2007 Road Scholars.

Jim Owen brings his knowledge in nursery systems and systems automation to the project. Owen works out of  OSU Extension with Northwest nurseries in areas of irrigation and water management in containerized crop production, phosphorus fate in nursery production, substrate physics and fertility, containerized crop nutrition, ornamental cutting propagation.

I am a research assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. My research interests span various topics in distributed sensor networks, computer graphics, computer vision, and robotics. I am affiliated with the Purdue Robot Vision Lab where I have the privilege of working with some of the most brilliant students.

 My current position provides leadership in the development of IPM educational programs for the greenhouse and nursery industry, the highest value and most diverse agricultural commodity in Oregon. I'm based at the North Willamette Research and Extension Center, located in the heart of the nursery production area. My educational program involves various areas including implementation of biological control in commercial nurseries, improving plant pest monitoring and identification skills, and increasing efficiency of chemical control tactics. I have begun to develop web-based educational programming including websites on bamboo spider mites and honeylocust pod gall midge. Research is an integral part of my program with concentration on key pests such as root weevils, honey locust pod gall midge, wooly ash aphid, greenhouse biological control, and field releases of predatory mites for spider mite control. I have also become involved in campus undergraduate instruction focusing on nursery IPM

Seavert's research interests are production economics, budget analysis, agricultural finance, returns on investment of agricultural research, and the costs and benefits of technology adoption. As an AG-Economist, his focus is on risk management  and developing tools for  agricultural producers' risk assessment.

Research interests include robotics system integration, micro-controller, DSP system design and implementation and robotics vision system. Additional interests are computing security, wireless network, internet/intranet services, system programming and system administration.

I grew up in Bombay, India, attending the Cathedral and John Connon School  before I immigrated to the US in 1978.  My first experience of America was in Ft. Collins, Colorado, in Northern Colorado where I finished high school at Poudre High.  The next year I started at the University of Denver to work on a Bachelors in Computer Science.  In 1984 I was at Lehigh University to work on a Master’s in Electrical Engineering.  The following year I got a job at Carnegie Mellon working as an engineer in the Construction Robotics Lab of the Civil Engineering department to work on NavLab, an early outdoor mobile robot. In 1989, I entered  the first class of the Ph.D program in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon.  In 1992, I did research in Japan for a summer at the Mechanical Engineering Lab in Tsukuba. Since 1995, I have been on the research faculty at the Robotics Institute principally affiliated with the Field Robotics Center and the National Robotics Engineering Center. I live in Pittsburgh with my wife and two daughters.  My personal web page has some artifacts-- recipes and photography.  http://web.mac.com/ssinghpa/Workshop/Home.html

Heather brings a variety of nursery related experience to NWREC.  She received a M.S. from UC Davis in Integrated Pest Management where she studied mealybug pests of California nursery production.  In addition, she spent 10 years working at a wholesale nursery with responsibilities in multiple areas including propagation, plant health, soils and fertility.  Currently Heather assists Dr. Jim Owen in his research with substrates, fertility, and irrigation.

Current research employs computer vision and sensors to solve problems in the fruit industry, specifically the automation of orchard tasks. Current and future work is concerned with three-dimensional modeling of the orchard. This work is executed at AFRS in West Virginia and at the Robot Vision Lab of Purdue University.

I participate in an interdisciplinary effort to develop, evaluate, and provide fruit-crop management systems for Pennsylvania producers. My responsibilities center on educating growers and extension agents.

Bret Wallach founded Personal Robotics Inc. in 1999 to develop autonomous robotic solutions that focused on vision-based mapping. At that time a convergence of favorable cost factors, the need for more efficient labor solutions across multiple industries and consumer markets, and advances in robotics technology indicated that robotics was ready to move out of the lab and into the marketplace.

The company, which was renamed Vision Robotics Corporation to better reflect the technology that drives VRC's proprietary, patented technology, has been capitalized through private funding and partnerships with, among others, the California Citrus Research Board and Korvan Industries.