Charlie Li

Charlie Li is a Professor in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department and he serves as the IFAS AI Administrative Coordinator. Prior to his current position, he was a Professor and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia. He earned his doctoral degree in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and received his postdoctoral research training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He has over 20 years of experience in developing innovative AI-based sensing and automation technologies to advance digital agriculture and automated phenotyping. He is a member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). His work has been recognized by several national awards from the ASABE, including New Holland Young Researcher Award, Rain Bird Engineering Concept of the Year Award, and multiple paper awards. Together with his collaborators, he has successfully secured more than $16 million in grant funding from a diverse range of sources, including the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the National Science Foundation, state agencies, and industry partners. He holds one US patent and co-founded a startup company focusing on agricultural technologies.