Research Associate

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Job Title:

Research Associate

Department:

FAES | Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering

The Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering (FABE), The Ohio State University invites applications for a Research Associate position to assist research activities at Dr. Peter Ling’s laboratory. The position is located on Wooster, OH. The successful candidates will be a member of a multi-disciplinary research team composes of engineers, horticulturalists, and plant pathologist, and support staff of the departments.

The primary responsibility is to advance research in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) by applying artificial intelligence, computer vision, and automation to crop sensing and monitoring. The Research Associate will contribute to developing AI-enabled systems for plant health assessment, disease detection, and automated greenhouse management.

Major duties include:

• Design and implement computer vision pipelines for crop monitoring, plant stress detection, and disease identification in greenhouse environments.
• Apply machine learning and deep learning models (semantic segmentation, domain adaptation, multimodal AI) to analyze plant and environmental data.
• Support the integration of AI algorithms with robotic and sensing systems for real-world deployment.
• Assist in experimental design, data collection, and statistical analysis for USDA-funded CEA projects.
• Prepare technical reports, research manuscripts, and conference presentations to communicate project results.

Responsibility Percentage Breakdown

The primary research responsibility is to provide support to Dr. Ling’s research activities in the greenhouse robotics area. Major duties and percent of time the incumbents will be working on are as follows:

• 30%: Conduct greenhouse and laboratory experiments on crop monitoring, disease/stress analysis, and imaging.
• 50%: Develop, train, and deploy AI/computer vision models; integrate algorithms into sensing/automation systems; analyze plant/environmental data.
• 20%: Write reports, manuscripts, and prepare posters/presentations to document and disseminate research progress.

Minimum Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, Plant Science, Computer Science, Information Convergence Engineering, or related field and 1 year of relevant experience.
• Strong background in artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning methods (e.g., semantic segmentation, domain adaptation, multimodal models).
• Hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch), image analysis, and model deployment tools (Docker, Git, OpenCV).
• Demonstrated ability to conduct applied research, analyze results, and contribute to publications.
• Effective communication skills with ability to prepare research reports, technical documentation, and presentations.

Additional Information:

This job profile is a Researcher 1 (S1 level) on the career roadmap.

The offer for this position will fall within this range based on internal equity, unit’s available budget, and the candidate’s qualifications

Location:

Food Agriculture and Biological Engineering (9401)

Position Type:

Temporary (Fixed Term)

Scheduled Hours:

40

Shift:

First Shift

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