Registration available for Oct. 18 Westwood Lecture on ‘A Digital Revolution in Forestry’

Registration is available for faculty to attend the Westwood Lecture Series on Oct. 18.

Songlin Fei, professor and Dean’s Chair of Remote Sensing, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, will discuss “A Digital Revolution in Forestry: AI and Lasers and Digital Twins, Oh My!” from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Westwood, the Purdue president’s residence.

A program aimed at enhancing the intellectual vibrancy of the Purdue West Lafayette campus, the Westwood Lecture Series is an opportunity for Purdue faculty and those staff members engaged in the research topic to interact with colleagues on scholarly work.

Information about Fei’s Oct. 18 presentation can be found below. Space is limited to the first 50 faculty who register online. 

“A Digital Revolution in Forestry: AI and Lasers and Digital Twins, Oh My!”

Songlin Fei

Professor and Dean’s Chair of Remote Sensing, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources 

Abstract. Forests provide critical resources such as timber, fiber, and clean water and air, on which we are heavily dependent. Although digital technology continues to transform our daily lives, our forests are still managed using outdated technologies that are often imprecise and labor intensive. Here, I discuss how Purdue’s Institute for Digital Forestry is taking advantage of recent key developments in sensing technology and computational advancements to move this traditional field into the digital age. I highlight examples about how to merge cross-disciplinary knowledge to revolutionize the forestry sector, which has tremendous economic and ecological impacts. In particular, I showcase the use of different sensing technology from proximal, near-proximal, aerial and satellite-based sensing platforms and various AI models for automated measurement, monitoring and management of forest ecosystems.

Bio. Songlin Fei is a professor and the Dean’s Chair of Remote Sensing, and serves as the director of the Institute for Digital Forestry at Purdue University. Fei’s research includes forest ecology, invasion ecology and digital forestry. His research has significantly advanced the ecology and management of invasive species, the understanding of forest responses to climate change and the modernization of forestry into the digital age. His work has been published in over 140 peer-reviewed research articles, including those in Science, Science Advance, Nature Communications and PNAS. Fei currently serves as the PI for over $25 million of research funding. 

Future Fall 2023 Westwood Lecture Series Events

Nov. 16: Ed Delp — Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, professor of biomedical engineering, professor of psychological sciences (courtesy). “Deep Fakes and Other Types of Generated and Manipulated Media: It Is Real and Coming for Our Society!”

Dec. 13: Preeti Sivasankar — Professor and head, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences; assistant vice president for strategic health research, Office of Research; adjunct faculty, IU School of Medicine — West Lafayette. “Can You Protect Your Voice? Physiological Investigations from Rats to Humans.”