Ferguson College of Agriculture

Ifekristi Ogunwobi said she chose the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at Oklahoma State University, because it is recognized as one of the best in crop science research in the country.

 

“I chose OSU for the quality of research being carried out and to learn from the enormous knowledge base and for the immense networking opportunity,” she said.

 

Ogunwobi is a doctoral student in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences studying biomass and yield prediction of energy crops using UAV and machine learning. She has a Bachelor of Agriculture in Agronomy from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a Master of Science in Plant and Soil Sciences from Oklahoma State University.

 

She is exploring the use of the emerging field of explainable artificial intelligence (AI) to understand the cause-effect relationship between plant trait and sensor signal and use AI tools to develop machine learning algorithms and models that would predict crop growth and yield.

 

“I love everything about graduate school – the skills I’m gaining, networking, taking leadership positions, attending seminars. To ensure food security and feed the growing population, remote sensing is required in crop production. I am interested in carrying out research in precision agriculture and crop yield prediction for rapid decision making.”

 

In her life outside of the research realm, Ogunwobi enjoys making clothes.

 

“I don't do it regularly. I make clothes at my leisure when I am not writing or reading,” she said. “I just love to create my style.“

 

Following graduate school, Ogunwobi hopes to continue agricultural research in a university, research institute and/or industry setting.

 

“I want to continue to investigate other ways by which plant screening can be done quickly and non-destructively by combining high-throughput phenotyping with remote sensing techniques and use explainable AI and machine learning to develop algorithms for good decision making.”