For this year’s International Women’s Day (taking place as always on the 8th March), we would like to give a special nod to all the women who have devoted their time and energy to AgriFoRwArdS.

Our Academics have a special place in the CDT, we wouldn’t be able to support our students the way we do without them. Find out more about those female academics who are currently involved in supervision of our PhD Students.

	Prof Alexandra Brintrup at the University of Cambridge is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 2 student Jack Foster and Second Supervisor for Cohort 3 student Samuel Carter and Cohort 4 student James Heselden. Alexandra is Professor of Digital Manufacturing within the Manufacturing Systems Research Group, she focused on predictive data analytics and machine learning in manufacturing.
	Prof Beatriz de la Iglesia at the University of East Anglia is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 2 student Harry Rogers. Beatriz is a data mining researcher with expertise in algorithm development and application to several areas including health care data analysis. She also wears various hats at UEA, including Director of PgT Programmes, Chair of Examiners, Director of the Data Science MSc, and Deputy Director of Learning and Teaching.
	Prof Elizabeth Sklar at the University of Lincoln is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 2 student Amie Owen. Elizabeth is Research Director of the Lincoln Agri-Robotics Centre and began her career in industry, where she worked as a Software Engineer. She not focuses her research on interaction in robot teams, fleet management, and human-robot collaboration.
	Dr Hatice Gunes at the University of Cambridge is second supervisor for Cohort 1 student Roopika Ravikanna and Cohort 2 student Amie Owen. Hatice leads the Affective Intelligence and Robotics Lab, which investigates taste-like facilitation by humanoid robots as well as the social appropriateness of robot actions.
	Prof Joan Lasenby at the University of Cambridge is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 2 student Haris Matsantonis. Joan is Professor of Image and Signal Analysis and studied both her undergraduate and PhD at the University of Cambridge. She has also taught mathematics in the United States. Her research focuses on geometric algebra, structured light plethysmography, inertial navigation, and gait and rehabilitation.
	Dr Letizia Mortara at the University of Cambridge is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 3 student Bethan Moncur. Letizia is a Lecturer in Technology Management within the Manufacturing and Management Division. Her research focuses on technological decision-making in response to fast-changing contexts.
	Maria (Marisé) Galvez Trigo at the University of Lincoln is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 3 student Alex Elias and Second Supervisor for Cohort 3 student Bethan Moncur. Marisé’s research is focused on human-robot interaction, human-computer interaction, and applications of machine learning in both. She is a Lecturer in the Interactive Technologies Lab within the School of Computer Science and also has experience within Industry, having been an IT Consultant, Software Integrator, Web Developer and Games Producer.
	Dr Petra Bosilj at the University of Lincoln is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 2 student Bradley Hurst and Second Supervisor for Cohort 2 student William Rohde and Cohort 3 student Kyle Fogarty. Petra is Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, focused on imaging and vision, and applies her expertise to robotic vision for precision agriculture and crop phenotyping. Primarily she is concerned with understanding image connect from scarcely annotated data, building visual recognition models which generalise well even under substantial domain shift, and modelling the part-whole relationships in visual scenes.
	Dr Ruchi Choudhary at the University of Cambridge is Primary Supervisor for Cohort 3 student Vijja Wichitwechkarn. Ruchi is Reader of Architectural Engineering within the Engineering Department and specialised in simulation methods for predicting energy demand. She leads the research group on Digital Twins of Built Environment at the Alan Turing Institute, and leads the multi-disciplinary Energy Efficient Cities Initiative. Ruchi is mainly interested in urban integrated agriculture and in controlled environment farming.

Stay tuned for more International Women’s Day info tomorrow, where we will celebrate our very special students!