NAAMII Lecture Series 2019: Prof. Manoj Karkee

NAAMII organized the first episode of NAAMII Lecture Series 2019: ‘Automation and Robotics in Agriculture’ by  Prof. Manoj Karkee. Prof. Manoj Karkee is an Associate Professor in the Biological Systems Engineering Department at Washington State University (WSU). He is a leading researcher in the field of agricultural automation and was recently recognized as ‘2019 Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence and IoT’ by Connected World magazine and was featured as the ‘Western Innovator’ by Capital Press.

Prof. Karkee discussed the importance of precision and automated/robotic systems for the future of farming. He then summarized past efforts and current status of agricultural automation and robotics, particularly for fruit crop production. Then, he made the introduction of the novel systems being developed in his program: robotic fruit harvesting, fruit tree pruning, and crop thinning. He concluded the talk discussing future directions in research and development, and potential efforts in technology and knowledge transfer to farming in developing countries like Nepal.

The two-hour event was hosted by GATE College at Mandikhatar where 25 people from diverse background participated.
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