Dr. Zheyu Jiang of CHE awarded prestigious NSF CAREER Award
Friday, April 18, 2025
Media Contact: Tanner Holubar | Communications Specialist | 405-744-2065 | tanner.holubar@okstate.edu
Dr. Zheyu Jiang, assistant professor in Oklahoma State University’s School of Chemical Engineering in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, was recently awarded the CAREER Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Jiang, who started at OSU in 2021, is the recipient of a $500,000 NSF grant that runs through the end of 2029. His research focuses on developing advanced computational models and AI methods to digitalize modern agricultural production, increase crop yield, reduce water and energy consumption and improve sustainability.
As per NSF, the Faculty Early Career Development Program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of early career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
Throughout the grant, Jiang will look to improve the viability and economic potential of sensor-driven smart irrigation on farmland. Leveraging real-time soil moisture and salinity sensor measurements at strategic locations and mathematical models describing complex water and solute flow dynamics in soil, a digital-twin solution will be created that could accurately estimate field-wide soil moisture and salinity profiles in real time.
“The idea is to combine sensor data and mathematical models to create a synergistic effect,” Jiang said.
Based on this valuable information, an optimal irrigation schedule can be determined
to inform farmers of the best time and amount to irrigate their fields to minimize
water consumption and maintain soil moisture level and crop health. Jiang said a farmer
would ideally be able to use an app or a program that can be pulled up at any time
to see the current situation of the soil.
I’m very grateful to receive this prestigious award. I proposed a lot of tasks with
both research and education and how they integrate. Having access to the support and
the resources at OSU to pursue these exciting projects is a great honor. I also thank
my department, CEAT, as well as colleagues and collaborators for their continuing
support that made this award possible.
“If we look at Oklahoma and the whole country, many areas used for water-hungry crop production such as soybean and wheat are also very dry,” Jiang said. “What’s more, the groundwater in these areas typically has high salt content. So, the idea is, ‘How do we use this kind of water for irrigation to relieve water stress?’ To do that, we need to control how much water will be used for irrigation to ensure crop growth and prevent soil damage.”
Technology is currently limited because sensors can only measure soil moisture and salinity data locally and cannot cover the entire field. It is estimated that only 12% of irrigated farms in the U.S. have deployed soil moisture sensors, and far fewer farms have ever practiced salinity sensing. Considering that 1/3 of the U.S. counties experienced severe drought or worse in a year and that U.S. irrigated farms lose more than $30 billion/year due to drought, the potential economic and societal benefits brought to farmers, especially those in rural and underserved communities, are enormous.
Jiang gained experience working in the agricultural industry shortly after earning his Ph.D in chemical engineering. He worked for Dow Chemical as a process development engineer before working in the same role for Corteva Agriscience.
He said when he first started researching how to improve agricultural sustainability in a digital capacity, he focused more on technology and later developed an appreciation for outreach and education.
“That experience helped develop my interest in digital agriculture,” Jiang said. “My Ph.D. was in computation and my industry experience was in agriculture. So, I naturally had this idea of combining the two to see how some computational tools such as AI could be introduced to solve food and agricultural challenges.”
This research will have regional, national impact
This research is true to OSU’s land-grant mission. Through this project, Jiang hopes to help build and strengthen OSU’s research capabilities in scientific computing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture and sustainability.
Another major aspect of this project will be education and outreach programs to raise awareness of digital and sustainable farming among engineering students, farmers and local communities. Education and outreach efforts will be parallel to the research. Jiang will look into establishing a digital agriculture testbed in one of OSU’s agricultural research fields. The team will purchase soil sensors, deploy them, and validate the digital-twin solution developed using actual experimental data collected at the testbed.
Students and farmers can visit this testbed and learn about soil sensing, digital agriculture and best irrigation practices. It provides students and farmers an opportunity to make an impact in real-world scenarios, setting them up for success with more experience in areas such as how AI can be used to modernize the food and agriculture sectors.
As things develop, Jiang also wants to incorporate those findings into the curriculum for chemical engineering students and STEM programs.
A new course will be introduced on sustainable systems engineering, adding process systems engineering, agriculture and sustainability to OSU’s chemical engineering curriculum.
“I’m very grateful to receive this prestigious award. I proposed a lot of tasks with both research and education and how they integrate,” Jiang said. “Having access to the support and the resources at OSU to pursue these exciting projects is a great honor. I also thank my department, CEAT, as well as colleagues and collaborators for their continuing support that made this award possible.”
Click here for more information on Dr. Zheyu Jiang's research.