Simerjeet Virk
Dr. Simerjeet Virk leads and manages the Digital Ag team at the University of Georgia. He is an assistant professor and Extension Precision Ag Specialist in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.
Dr. Virk has a B. Tech. in Agricultural Engineering from Punjab Agricultural University, M.S. in Biosystems Engineering from Auburn University and Ph.D. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from the University of Georgia.
Graduate Students
Coleman Byers
Coleman Byers is a native of Tifton, GA and studied environmental engineering from the University of Georgia for his undergraduate program.
He is now pursuing a M.S. degree in agricultural engineering from UGA.
Byers’ research focuses on assessing application performance and parameter optimization for pesticide applications with unmanned aerial systems.
Ravi Meena
Ravi Meena is from Jaipur, Rajasthan in India and completed his M.S. in Hydrology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering at the University of Georgia.
For his Ph.D. research, Ravi is working on assessing application performance of traditional and advanced sprayer rate control systems for map-based site-specific and variable-rate pesticide applications.
Connect with Ravi Meena : Email
Amrit Pokhrel
Amrit Pokhrel is from Nepal and completed his undergraduate studies in agriculture from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences. He is currently pursuing a M.S. in Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia. He is co-advised by Drs. Virk and Snider.
Amrit’s graduate research is focused on defining physiological contributions to yield loss in cotton at different nitrogen levels and using aerial imagery from unmanned aerial systems to predict yield-driving physiological parameters of cotton.
Madan Sapkota
Madan Sapkota is from Nepal and completed his undergraduate degree in Agricultural Sciences from the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU) in Nepal in 2019. He is currently pursuing his MS degree in Crop and Soil Sciences at the University of Georgia.
Madan’s graduate research is focused on investigating the influence of application parameters such as spray volume and droplet size, and use of precision technologies on spray performance during pesticide applications in peanut.
Matt Tucker
Matt Tucker is from Camilla, Georgia. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Agriscience and Environmental Systems from the University of Georgia. He is now pursuing a M.S. in Crop and Soil Sciences at UGA.
Tucker’s research project focuses on investigating different precision soil sampling strategies for accurate depiction of soil nutrient variability within the fields, and to improve application accuracy and efficiency of variable-rate fertilizer applications.
Student Assistants
Brent Davis
Brent Davis is from Irwinville, Georgia. He is currently pursuing B.S. in agriculture from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.
Brent started working as a student assistant with the team in Spring 2021 and helps with field work, research equipment/vehicle maintenance and data collection with different ongoing research and Extension projects.
Trace Larimer
Trace Larimer is from Covington, Georgia. He is currently pursuing a B.S. In AgBusiness from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.
Trace started working as a student assistant in the spring of January 2023 and helps with field work, data collection and analysis with different ongoing research and Extension projects.
Alumni
Michael Goodnight
Michael Goodnight is from Anderson, South Carolina and has a B.S. degree in Agriculture from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. He obtained his M.S. in Crop and Soil Sciences from the University of Georgia in 2022.
Michael’s thesis research was focused on investigating the influence of different pre-plant dry fertilizer application methods (broadcast vs banding) on corn growth and yield.