Research Assistant (Crop Experiments & Sensing)

The School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) provides a vibrant and nurturing environment for staff and students to carry out inter-disciplinary research in key areas such as Computational Materials Science, Characterisation Materials Science, Defence Composite Materials, Functional Composite Materials, Energy, Nanomaterials, Low Dimensional Materials, Biomaterials Materials, Biological Materials, Bioinspired Materials and Sustainable Materials.

For more details, please view https://www.ntu.edu.sg/mse/research.

We are looking for a Research Assistant (Crop Experiments and Sensing) to join an interdisciplinary project, funded by National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) under the AI-for-Science Catalytic Grant, which aims to develop AI-driven urban farming systems for crop yield and trait optimisation.

The researcher will join a multidisciplinary research team, with primary responsibilities in greenhouse operations, crop experimentation, and plant proximal/remote sensing. Experimental duties include coordinating and monitoring the successful execution of crop experiments, ensuring that all technical and manpower requirements are in place. Plant sensing duties include overseeing the operation of the remote sensing systems (RGB, 3D, hyperspectral, and thermal imaging) for crop monitoring. The researcher will also liaise with industry collaborators and funding agencies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist in the deployment, operation, and maintenance of proximal sensing systems for Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), including RGB, 3D, hyperspectral, and thermal imaging cameras, as well as agritech sensors. Procure experimental equipment, sensors, and peripherals.

• Maintain data pipelines for greenhouse and CEA experiments, including adapting source code to different crop types (e.g., camera height calibration and image segmentation algorithms).

• Consolidate data from different sources to input machine learning modelling. This includes near-continuous interventions or treatments, plant sensing, ground-truth data of yield and mineral content, and metadata. Maintain databases, ensuring data integrity. Execute backup policies.

• Coordinate with vendors to troubleshoot and resolve operational sensing-related issues.

• Monitor active experiments using phenotyping software, including dynamic irrigation scheduling.

• Coordinate greenhouse experiment operations with the greenhouse manager, including manpower planning, seedling production, fertigation tank refilling, and hardware support.

• Prepare technical progress reports and respond to information requests from funding agencies.

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor’s in Remote Sensing, Agricultural/Electronic/or Biosystems Engineering, Plant/or Computer Science, Agronomy or relevant fields from a reputable institution.

• Advanced knowledge in proximal/remote sensing, cameras.

• Advanced knowledge in image processing and programming.

• At least 2 years of relevant experience, and willingness to work with agritech IoT equipment.

• Experience in plant/crop experiments and phenotyping is an advantage.

• Ability to work well with multiple competing priorities, manage projects and meet deadlines.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and ability to work in a diverse, international, and inter-disciplinary research environment.

• A good team player and able to work independently with minimum supervision.

We regret to inform that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.