Team
Dr. Sierra Young
Principal Investigator
Sierra Young is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and the Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University. Broadly speaking, her research focuses on the use and development of electronics, computer vision/AI, robotics, and automation for sensing and sense-making in environmental systems. Through developing and deploying these technologies, work conducted in the DAISy Lab aims to improve our ability to monitor and understand complex environmental processes.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Vaishali Swaminathan
Vaishali Swaminathan is a postdoctoral researcher in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department. Her research focuses on combining remote sensing, computer vision, and data science to model agricultural and ecological systems. She received her Ph.D. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2024.
Email: vaishali [dot] swaminathan [at] usu [dot] edu
Graduate Students
Safran Khan
PhD Student
Safran Khan is a Ph.D. student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Utah State University. His research focuses on developing novel approaches that integrate deep-learning algorithms into civil engineering practices. Specifically, he is working on using deep learning for hydrological feature extraction.
Email: a02428105 [at] usu [dot] edu
Razin Bin Issa
MS Student
Razin is an M.S. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University working on extracting hydrologic information (such as surface velocity, streambank width, etc.) from cameras using AI techniques and exploring edge vs. cloud computing for image processing. His research interests broadly center on the application of robotics, AI, space, and autonomous vehicle systems. He is constantly trying to improve as an engineer and has a keen interest in robotics and computer vision applications for the benefit of humanity.
Email: a02428103 [at] usu [dot] edu
Mitchell Bailey
MS Student (Co-Advised with Dr. Cal Coopmans)
Mitchell is an M.S. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Utah State working on improving UAV measurement of water properties. His interests include UAV design for autonomous missions in agricultural and ecological fields.
Email: a02400043 [at] usu [dot] edu
Dylan McPeake
MS Student
Dylan is an M.S. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State, working on monitoring water and air quality concerning harmful algal blooms. His interests include robotics and water related to ecological, stormwater, and agricultural practices.
Email: a02422888 [at] usu [dot] edu
Undergraduate Researchers
Hannah Smith
Hannah is an undergraduate student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at USU. She is helping develop sensor systems for UAS and piloting aircraft for various research projects.
Kai Francom
Kai is an undergraduate student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at USU. He is assisting with laboratory and fieldwork related to monitoring harmful algal blooms at Utah Lake.
Hannah Fluckiger
Hannah is an undergraduate student in mathematics, statistics, and computer science at Utah State. She is helping process video and imagery for camera-based hydrologic monitoring.
Alumni
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Yuzhen Lu, Postdoc (NCSU), 2020, Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University.
Graduate Students
Hemanth Dakshinamurthy, PhD, 2024 (USU), Research Scientist, South Carolina State University.
Piyush Pandey, PhD, 2022 (NCSU), ORISE postdoctoral fellow at USDA-ARS.
Andrew Hillman, MS, 2021 (NCSU), PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Anh Nguyen, MS, 2021 (NCSU), PhD student at North Carolina State University.
Russell Smith, MS, 2021 (NCSU).
Undergraduate Researchers
Aspen Sorenson, Chemistry (USU), Summer 2022-2023
Isaac Orrill, Mechanical Engineering (USU), Summer 2022-2023
Spencer Corkins, Biological and Agricultural Engineering (NCSU), Spring 2020-2021.
Ian Dershem, Computer Science (UNC Chapel Hill), Spring-Summer 2021.
Evan Smith, Biological & Agricultural Engineering (NCSU), Summer 2019-2020.
John Corriher Biological & Agricultural Engineering (NCSU), Summer 2019.
Will Daniels, Computer Engineering (UNC Charlotte), Summer 2019.
Nicole Knox, Computer Engineering (NCSU), Fall 2019.
High School Students
Arianne Fels, Summer 2024.