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Fargo ARS Welcomes Ag Engineer, Sunil Mathanker

Saturday, March 1, 2025
filed under: Research and Development

The USDA-ARS Sunflower Research Unit at Fargo, N.D., was bolstered at the onset of 2025 by the addition of research agricultural engineer Sunil Mathanker. The National Sunflower Association played an instrumental role in the lengthy process to get this new position funded and filled.
        “My mission is to find solutions to the agricultural problems that affect sunflower stakeholders and help them be successful,” Mathanker says. “My mantra is, ‘If our stakeholders are successful, I am successful in my mission.’ ”
        More specifically, Mathanker is focusing on helping sunflower scientists automate plant phenotyping activities that consume disproportionate amounts of man hours besides being prone to human bias. “This work involves the successful integration of cutting-edge technologies such as sensors and machine learning — broadly categorized as artificial intelligence,” he says. “The goal is to increase the speed and accuracy of phenotyping genetic lines, which in turn will ultimately increase the efficiency (and accuracy) of selection for economically valuable traits.”
        In his new position at Fargo, Mathanker works in concert with ARS research geneticist Brent Hulke, as well as research plant pathologist Bill Underwood and research entomologist Jarrad Prasifka. He emphasizes that the new position was created with support from both stakeholders (NSA) and researchers at Fargo. “I am excited to join my colleagues in strengthening their research capabilities, and we have already started working together to best serve the needs of sunflower stakeholders,” he states.
        After earning his Ph.D from Oklahoma State University in agricultural engineering, Mathanker worked as a post-doctoral researcher with the University of Illinois. Prior to taking the Fargo ARS position, he taught agricultural machinery management and precision agriculture technology courses at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.
        “The focus of my research has been sensors and machine learning applications in agriculture,” Mathanker reflects. “During my doctoral work, I developed a new image segmentation method that allowed the rapid and automatic detection of insect-damaged pecan nuts; this technology received two awards from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). Application of machine learning approaches improved damage detection accuracy and reduced computational time.”
        While working in Illinois, Mathanker developed biomass yield sensors and modified hay harvesting machinery for harvesting miscanthus, a bioenergy crop. He also worked on identifying design modifications in sugarcane harvesters to make them more efficient in harvesting energycane, another bioenergy crop. At the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, his focus was on developing a teaching and research program on precision agriculture technologies.
          “Having Sunil on board is in line with the NSA’s goals for the Sunflower Breeding Initiative,” affirms John Sandbakken, NSA executive director. “He will be an important collaborator working with other USDA-ARS scientists in developing hybrids that are tailored to U.S. growing regions. Sunil’s background will give the research work being conducted at ARS a new dimension and will help speed up the process in developing and testing parental lines. He is a welcome addition to the sunflower team at ARS!”