Team Members

Principal Investigator

Younsuk Dong, PhD

Younsuk Dong is an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Biosystems and Agriculture Engineering at Michigan State University (MSU). He leads the MSU Irrigation Program, which focuses on improving agricultural water management (water quantity and quality) in irrigated settings and providing irrigation education and training to stakeholders. (dongyoun@msu.edu)

Research Associates

Soni Kumari, PhD

PhD: Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT Dhanbad, India

Hometown: Patna, Bihar, India

Ongoing Project: Dr. Kumari specializes in developing cost-effective and sustainable strategies for wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery, aligning with the core philosophy of creating "wealth out of waste." Her current research focuses on capturing dissolved reactive phosphorus from controlled tile drainage in the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB).

Nawab Ali, PhD

PhD: Agronomy

Hometown: Buner Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Ongoing Project: Precision irrigation and nutrients management through innovative techniques, IoT sensors and simulation modelling for enhancing resources efficiencies, reduce losses and improving crop productivity, Agriculture Return Flow (ARF) and groundwater recharge estimation through sensor technology and empirical models, water and Nitrogen colimitation, crop simulation modelling.

Research Assistants

Jack Chappuies

Hometown: Toledo, OH

Project and Focus: Electrical Resistivity, Geophysics, Undergraduate Supervisor and Lab Manager.

Pranav Vedasendur Senthilvel

Hometown: Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Project and Focus: Maintains code library to interact with sensors. Assists in setting up experiments involving sensors. Current projects: Creating 3D heat maps of fruit trees and Monitoring growth of Christmas trees using depth cameras.

Najme Yazdanpanah, PhD

Project and Focus: Research specializes in agricultural water management and precision agriculture to optimize water use efficiency and irrigation systems. She investigates soil nutrient dynamics, water and wastewater treatment, and water stress impacts on plant production, all supporting sustainable water and soil management practices.

Graduate Students

Greg Rouland

(PhD Program)

Hometown: Garden City, MI

Focused on sustainable water use, Greg focuses on the treatment and land application of food processing wastewater, specifically from meat processing. Current projects include evaluating different pre-treatment technologies for small meat processors and utilizing geophysical surveying methods to understand contaminant flow from land-applied wastewater.

Estee Swartz

(PhD Program)

Hometown: Gqeberha, South Africa

Project and Focus: As a Water Resource Specialist, Estée loves working with water. In the irrigation lab she is expanding her professional interests by applying geophysical tools to characterize the impacts of groundwater use in agriculture. She will use her collected data to integrate it with modelling at specific farms to bring new insights to farmers and regulators on the impact and sustainable use of groundwater for irrigation in Michigan.

Farzana Akter

(PhD Program)

Hometown: Bangladesh

Project and Focus: Reusing Wastewater for Sustainable Crop Production and Water Management.

Abraham Rai

(MS Program)

Hometown: Udaypur, Nepal

Project and Focus: Effect of Reservoir Tillage on yield and crop water productivity for potato production. Variables of concern: Volumetric Water Content, Nitrate levels, Yield, Water Usage/ET, along with runoff and sediment.

However, the project does also look into soil and environmental concern factors when taken into account the runoff and sediment volumes, in a sloping scenario.

Shivani Rana

(MS Program)

Hometown: Khajura, Banke, Nepal

Project and Focus: Precision irrigation and nutrient management for apples.

Jisun Lee

(MS Program)

Hometown: South Korea

Project and Focus: Designing and developing Berrigation, a smart irrigation system for blueberry cultivation.

Jalal Bayar

(MS Program)

Hometown: Swabi Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Project and Focus: Research focuses on improving irrigation water management in blueberry fields through the integration of sensor technology and innovative irrigation systems. This involves the design and setup of a field experiment, installation of IoT-based sensor monitoring system, and the measurement of blueberry plant health.

Mamata Pandey

(MS Program)

Hometown: Nawalparasi, Nepal

Project and Focus: Precision irrigation management for Christmas tree production through sensor technology.

Roshan Varadharajan

(MS Program)

Hometown: Trichy, India

Project and Focus: Worked in renewable energy industry in power equipment sizing and control system development in both wind and PV projects. He also carried research on motor drive protection systems and power quality monitoring systems His research interests include renewable energy, grid integration and power converters.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Caden Wade

Hometown: Wheatland, WY

Crop and Soil Sciences: Agronomy, Senior

Project and Focus: Analyzing the differences in day- and night-irrigation of soybean and the relation to yield and disease pressure. Quantifying the nutrient release timing of synthetic and organic fertilizers under saturated soil conditions.

Stewart Tucker

Hometown: Grand Rapids, MI

Biosystems Engineering, Senior

Project and Focus: Investigating common irrigation strategies and management practices for a blueberry orchard relating to corresponding yield and fruit quality. Irrigation approaches are simulated using HYDRUS soil water flow modeling software to maintain the optimal moisture levels for blueberry plants grown in sandy soils.

Thomas Rose

Hometown: Scottsbluff, NE

Mechanical Engineering

Project and Focus: Working on a project that implements Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) technology on a farm scale for disease detection.

Janus Grivins

Hometown: Eaton Rapids, MI

Biosystems Engineering, Junior

Project and Focus: Working on Electrical Impedance Tomography for root imaging. They are focusing on using this technology to help improve Christmas tree irrigation practices.

Erin Powell

Hometown:

Biosystems Engineering, Senior

Project and Focus:

Gary He

Hometown: Okemos, MI

Biosystems Engineering, Sophomore

Project and Focus: Developing a sap sensor and tree water potential sensor prototype and testing.

Nicholas Bray

Hometown: Frederick, MD

Biosystems Engineering, Senior

Project and Focus: Working on real time water quality sensors in the apple orchard.

Gianna Fiore

Hometown: Marlborough, MA

Biosystems Engineering, Senior

Project and Focus: Communications and working on Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) applications in an orchard setting.

Gene Ni

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Computer and Information Science, Senior

Project and Focus: Working on various apps, such as MSU SURE, new irrigation lab website along with various other tech related projects.

Summer Luick

Hometown: Midland, MI

Biosystems Engineering, Senior

Project and Focus:

MSU Extension Irrigation Team

Lyndon Kelley

Water management and irrigation educator for both MSU and Purdue Extension

Project and Focus: He provides irrigation design and management education to producers and industries. Lyndon’s goal is to help producers use water resources to decrease risk and increase profits with minimal adverse resource impact.

Angie Gradiz

Water Use Efficiency and Irrigation Educator based at the Branch County MSU Extension Office

Project and Focus: She primarily works with field crops, focusing on increasing agriculture water use efficiency while maintaining productivity through the implementation of effective irrigation scheduling and management tools.