Dr. Joe Mari Maja is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. in Information Science from Tohoku University in 2003 and his MBA from Clemson University in 2020. Prior to joining Clemson, Maja worked at the Eagle Flight Research Center in Daytona Beach, Florida in research and development of aeronautic technology. Maja is currently a research sensor engineer at the Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville, SC where he oversees the Sensor and Automation Laboratory.
Over the past few years, Maja has greatly contributed to the research enterprise at Clemson. He has worked to address current and future problems for farmers and seeks to provide solutions through his research on counting plants and tracking animals in open-field environments, crop health monitoring, and automation. Currently, the majority of Maja’s research efforts have been concentrated on small, unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) and robotics. As a UAV Pilot for Clemson University, appointed by Dr. George Askew, Maja’s research on sUAS has given farmers the tools necessary to address environmental needs based on real-time data. Over the years he has also collaborated on research projects in the areas of specialty crops, animal science, crop science and precision agriculture.
In addition to his research, Maja has actively been involved in several sUAS workshops for agricultural producers, co-authored publications on sUAS, one of which was awarded the regional Blue Ribbon Extension Publication Award in 2018 and is an advocate for assisting stakeholders in understanding his technology topics. Through his research effort, Maja hopes to alleviate the challenges of farming by having agric-tronic devices work for the farmers, instead of just with them.
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