🗓️Thursday, September 24, 2026
📍Georgia Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM
Registration and Light Breakfast
8:15 AM – 8:30 AM
Welcome & Introductions
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
SESSION I – Detection, Monitoring, and Diagnosis
- “Eavesdropping on Herbivores: AI-Based Sound Analysis Through Implicit Labeling”, Emily Bick, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- “Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Profiling with Machine Learning for Detecting Aspergillus and Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus in Peanut”, Daniel Sabo, Georgia Tech Research Institute
- “SporeCam: Using Image-based AI Algorithms to Enable 24/7 Disease Pathogen Monitoring”, Ryan French, ScanIt Technologies
- “Mechanically Intelligent Elongate Robots”, Daniel Goldman, Georgia Institute of Technology & Ground Control Robotics, Inc.
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Coffee Break
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
SESSION II – Modeling, Forecasting, and Prediction
- “Digital Innovation in Cotton Crop Protection: Overview of Research at Texas A&M University”, Muthu Bagavathiannan, Texas A&M University
- “Is Computer Vision the Missing Piece for Precision Agriculture?”, S. Chris Reberg-Horton, North Carolina State University
- “Integrating Remote Sensing with Epidemiological Modeling for Improved Disease Detection and Management”, Katie Gold, Cornell University
- “Foundation Models and Agentic AI for Crop Protection: Detecting and Deciding at Scale”, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Iowa State University
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Lunch Break & Poster Viewing
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM
SESSION III – Precision Technologies for Pest Management
- “Transforming Crop Protection Through Targeted Sprayers”, Lauren Lazaro, University of Georgia
- “Artificial Intelligence for Precision Crop Protection in Specialty Crops: Field Experiences with Laser Weeding and Targeted Spraying”, Thierry E. Besancon, Rutgers University
- “Recent Advancement in AI and Robotics for Precision Crop Management”, Manoj Karkee, Cornell University
- “Benchmarking Large Language Models for Crop Protection: Building a Community Leaderboard with AI AgriBench”, Ansh Ankul, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
3:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Coffee Break
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
SESSION IV – Applications and Future Directions
- “Current and Future Perspectives on AI and Robotics for Weed and Disease Detection in Agriculture”, Xin (Rex) Sun, North Dakota State University
- “Novel Sensors for Crop Protection”, Liang Dong, University of Georgia
- “Computer Vision for Crop Protection: Counting, Tracking, and 3D Reconstruction”, Jin Sun, University of Georgia
- “Rewriting the Rules with Aim & ApplyTM”, Chad Yagow, Verdant Robotics.
5:00 PM – 6:15 PM
Mixer & Poster Session
6:15 PM – 6:30 PM
Student Poster Awards & Concluding Remarks