Ismael is an Agricultural Engineer passionate about developing innovative solutions to address challenges underlying agronomy and post-harvest. He holds a Master’s degree in Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) from UC Davis, where he developed a stockpile dryer as an environmentally friendly, and faster way to dehydrate almonds in contrast to conventional windrow drying currently conducted in California. Ismael also developed a pedal-operated maize cleaner as a more efficient and less laborious alternative to cleaning maize for farmers in rural areas of Uganda.

Currently, Ismael is pursuing a Ph.D. degree at UC Davis, majoring in BSE and minoring in International Agricultural Development. His responsibilities on the GEMINI project are geared towards developing 3D models while integrating plant physiological and imagery data (RGB, thermal, LiDAR, multispectral) to sense plant traits and predict how they will affect plant performance.