Assistant/Associate Professor: Applied Artificial Intelligence

University of Florida•Hillsborough, FL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is seeking an Assistant/Associate Professor for a 9-month tenure-accruing position, split between research (70%) and extension (30%). This role will be based at the Agricultural AI Institute within the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center (GCREC). The position is part of a cohort focused on developing, advancing, and deploying applied artificial intelligence (AI) in agriculture, with an emphasis on automation and efficiency in specialty crop production. The successful candidate will advance the Institute’s research mission by developing, validating, and deploying AI innovations into field-ready agricultural technologies to address crop production challenges such as weed, disease, and insect detection, nutrient deficiency identification, crop characterization, and yield estimation. They will also develop, adapt, and integrate AI models into production systems for targeted spraying, precision mapping, spatial analysis, and sensor-based automation. The faculty member will play a key role in technology transfer by collaborating with multidisciplinary faculty, growers, equipment manufacturers, and agricultural technology companies. Responsibilities include coordinating field demonstrations, providing technical expertise, collecting feedback, and supporting technology refinement. The extension component involves developing an educational program to accelerate the adoption and evaluation of AI-based agricultural technologies to improve the profitability and environmental sustainability of Florida’s fruit and vegetable industry. The candidate is expected to embrace the Land-grant university system's missions of Research, Extension, and Teaching, establish a strong, externally funded research program, and promote their research activity and leadership in professional societies. Collaboration with other faculty and research partners is encouraged. The successful candidate will participate actively in undergraduate and graduate education by chairing and serving on graduate committees, supervising student research, and publishing research results with students. Faculty are encouraged to participate in professional development activities related to teaching and advising and may teach courses and seminars.

Requirements

A doctorate (foreign equivalent acceptable) in Engineering, Computer Science, Horticultural Sciences or a closely related discipline.
Demonstrated excellence in verbal and written communication skills.
Proven ability to participate in collaborative efforts.
Proven ability in procurement of external funding.
Experience with machine learning, computer vision, and/or experience with AI deployment in agricultural systems is necessary.
Must be supportive of the mission of the University Land-Grant system.
Must have a commitment to UF core values.

Nice To Haves

Applied, interdisciplinary scientist.
Experience with horticultural crops.
Experience with agricultural technology for horticultural crops.
Experience with sensors or precision-ag systems.
Proven experience training AI models.
Proven experience in creation of synthetic imagery.
Familiarity with Python, PyTorch/TensorFlow, ROS, edge AI platforms, remote sensing tools and field-ready hardware integration is an advantage.

Responsibilities

Develop, validate, and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) innovations into field-ready agricultural technologies.
Address crop production challenges including, but not limited to, weed, disease, and insect detection, nutrient deficiency identification, crop characterization, and yield estimation.
Develop, adapt, and integrate AI models into production systems for targeted spraying, precision mapping, spatial analysis, sensor-based automation, and other advanced agricultural uses.
Collaborate with multidisciplinary faculty, growers, equipment manufacturers, and agricultural technology companies to deploy and evaluate AI-enabled systems.
Coordinate field demonstrations, provide technical expertise during implementation, collect engineering and performance feedback, and support the refinement of technologies.
Develop a successful educational program to accelerate commercial adoption and evaluation of AI-based agricultural technologies.
Establish a strong, externally funded, research program.
Promote research activity and leadership in professional societies.
Engage in sustained publication activity in top scientific journals.
Collaborate with other faculty and research partners.
Participate actively in undergraduate and graduate education by chairing and serving on graduate committees.
Supervise thesis, dissertation, and undergraduate research.
Publish research results with students.
Participate in professional development activities related to teaching and advising.
May teach courses and seminars.