Q & A with Ismael Mayanja

We continue this month's member spotlights by sitting down with Ismael Mayanja, one of our Graduate students.

Please introduce yourself: who are you, where are you from, and what is your educational/professional background?

IM: Hi, my name is Ismael Kilinya Mayanja, an agricultural engineer by profession, passion, and mission. I hail from Kampala, Uganda, where I earned my Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Engineering. During my final year project, I designed a pedal-operated maize cleaner, which offers a practical and sustainable solution for cleaning maize grain without requiring any fuel or electricity. This innovation is particularly useful for farmers in remote areas. I am honored to have received the 2019 Maize Youth Innovation Award for this design. Later, I pursued my Master's degree in Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) at UC Davis, specializing in post-harvest handling and technology. For my Master's project, I developed a stockpile dryer as an alternative way of dehydrating almonds in California. This approach is more environmentally friendly and faster in comparison to the existing windrow drying. I find great joy in working on innovative projects that address agronomy and post-harvest challenges. I am currently a second-year Ph.D. student at UC Davis, majoring in BSE and minoring in International Agricultural Development.

What is your role within GEMINI?

IM: I am a member of the modeling team (Plant Simulation Lab), where I work under the supervision of Brian Bailey. My primary responsibility is to develop 3D biophysical crop models, which incorporate plant physiology and imagery data (such as RGB, thermal, LiDAR, and multispectral data) to predict plant performance.

How did you end up working with GEMINI and what interests you most about this project?

IM: Upon completing my Master's degree, my former PI (Dr. Irwin Donis-Gonzalez) informed me of an available Ph.D. position to work on an exciting project called "GEMINI". After discussing the opportunity with Dr. Brian, I knew this project would be enjoyable to work on and also propel my career forward. What interests me most about this project is its potential impact on food, nutrition, and economic security in low- and middle-income countries.

Is there anything particularly exciting you are working on now or in the near future that you would like to share?

IM: Yes, my current focus is on exploring the use of thermal data collected from various sources such as rovers, and smartphones to parameterize the stomatal conductance model in the Helios framework. The ultimate aim is to use this data to fit and extract parameters from the stomatal conductance model, with the extracted parameters being customized to specific crop genotypes and environments. This approach will facilitate more reliable prediction of drought-related traits, such as water use efficiency.

What do you like to do outside of work (personal hobbies and interests)?

IM: In my free time, I enjoy watching soccer matches, playing pickup soccer games, and sometimes playing chess.