Guest Lecture: Prof. Dr Masahiro Ryo (ZALF/BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg)

Title: "AI with low-cost, scalable monitoring approaches in agriculture"

Summary: This presentation introduces recent work on low-cost, scalable AI-based monitoring in agriculture and agroecosystems in the AI group at ZALF. Across studies, we develop computer vision and multimodal approaches using smartphones, citizen science, and general-purpose AI to enable largescale data collection and analysis. Examples include automated assessment of soil fauna activity from bait lamina imagery, geographic-scale coffee yield estimation from farmer-acquired images, and object counting using both specialised and general-purpose AI models. We further analyse how data quality and sampling design influence model performance in participatory settings. Complementary work integrates explainable AI and causal inference to translate observations into interpretable ecological insights. Together, these approaches demonstrate that combining low-cost sensing, human participation, and AI can support scalable, transparent, and decision-relevant monitoring in agriculture.

About Prof. Dr Masahiro Ryo
since 2020 Head of research group Artificial Intelligence for Smart Agriculture; ZALF  and Professor for Environmental Data Science; BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg

2016 Postdoctoral researcher; FU Berlin

2015 Postdoctoral researcher; Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology 2007 - 2015 PhD Civil Engineering; Tokyo Institute of Technology

2007 – 2012 BEng/MA Environmental and Civil Engineering; Tokyo Institute of Technology  

When?
Tuesday, 7 July 2026, 11:30 - 12:30 h

Where?
Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), Theodor-Echtermeyer-Weg 1, 14979 Großbeeren
Lecture Hall (Administration Building)

Registration
Please register at lectures@igzev.de.