CV

Education

• Ph.D., Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering; Minor in Applied Mathematics, Iowa State University, 2024–2025
• M.Eng., Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering; Minor in Applied Mathematics, Iowa State University, 2021–2023
• M.S., Engineering Science and Ocean Engineering, National Taiwan University, 2015–2017
• B.S., Systems and Naval Mechatronic Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, 2011–2015

Experience

• Postdoctoral Research Associate (Jan 2025 – Present)
  • Soils Laboratory, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
  • Conduct recurring synchrotron micro-XCT campaigns at the APS 2-BM beamline for soil aggregates and intact soil cores; developed a novel dual-energy contrast-enhanced approach using iodine staining for chemical-guided organic matter segmentation.
  • Design transformer-based deep learning frameworks for automated 3D supervised segmentation of synchrotron XCT volumes, enabling quantitative pore network analysis and spatial OM distribution mapping.
  • Design and maintain HPC-based reconstruction and inference pipelines on ALCF Polaris and NERSC Perlmutter, integrating tomocupy for GPU-accelerated image reconstruction.
  • Develop post-reconstruction correction pipelines: geometric tilt correction, ring artifact suppression, and Noise2Inverse self-supervised denoising (PSNR +4.38 dB, SSIM +0.015 on APS 2-BM soil XCT data).
  • Mentor undergraduate researchers across soil science, computational imaging, synchrotron physics, and agricultural systems.
• Digital Agriculture Research Assistant (Nov 2023 – Jan 2025)
  • Soil Machine Dynamics Laboratory, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
  • Designed AI-enabled, site-specific tillage decision systems combining sensitivity analysis, machine learning, cloud-based data integration, and on-site sensing.
  • Developed ML models to predict tillage performance and crop yield from multi-sensor soil indicator datasets.
  • Conducted field soil sampling across multiple tillage systems.
• GIS for Agriculture Summer Research Intern (May 2024 – Jan 2025)
  • Center for GIS and RCHSS, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Developed AI workflows for rice growth monitoring and yield prediction using Sentinel-2 satellite data and deep learning via Google Earth Engine.
  • Analyzed UV index data from GEMS and fused multimodal remote sensing signals.
• Teaching Assistant (Aug 2021 – May 2024)
  • Department of Mathematics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
  • Introduction to Data Science (DS 201) — Fall 2022
  • Calculus 1 (MATH 165) — Fall 2023
  • Calculus 2 (MATH 166) — Fall 2021
  • Calculus 3 (MATH 265) — Spring 2022, Spring 2023
  • Military Affiliated Tutoring for Calculus and General Physics
• Robotic Integration and Computer Vision Assistant (May 2022 – Aug 2023)
  • Agricultural Automation and Robotics Laboratory, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
  • Applied deep learning for corn feature extraction and optimized gradient-based algorithms for ML convergence.
• Structural Analysis Research Assistant (Sep 2015 – Jan 2021)
  • Advanced Structures and Materials Laboratory, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • Conducted multiphysics finite element simulations and implemented vibrational sensors for structural damage detection.

Technical Skills

• ML & Deep Learning: PyTorch, transformer architectures, CNNs, 3D segmentation, SVM, random forest, XGBoost, AdaBoost
• Computational Imaging: Synchrotron XCT reconstruction, tomographic algorithms, FFT-based frequency-domain transforms, polar-to-Cartesian inversion, pore network analysis
• HPC & Scientific Programming: ALCF Polaris, NERSC Perlmutter, GPU-accelerated pipelines
• Multimodal Imaging: Dual-energy micro-CT, iodine-contrast staining, infrared thermography, SEM, optical microscopy, remote sensing
• Software & Tools: Python, MATLAB, ImageJ, 3D Slicer, COMSOL, SolidWorks, Google Earth Engine, Git, Globus

Publications

Comparison of automated chemical-guided segmentation and human annotation of soil organic matter in X-ray microcomputed tomography imaging in contrasted soil types

He, Jia Hao, Andrew J Margenot, Yuhei Nakayama, Viktor Nikitin, Y Zou Finfrock, Odeta Qafoku, Tamas Varga, Neslihan Taş, Elizabeth C Gillispie, Amisha Poret Peterson, et al. (2026). "Comparison of automated chemical-guided segmentation and human annotation of soil organic matter in X-ray microcomputed tomography imaging in contrasted soil types." Geoderma 469, p. 117769.

Tillage-induced soil feature extraction and multi-sensors fusion for tillage system classification

Jia-Hao He, Steven K Mickelson, Jerry L Hatfield, and Mehari Z Tekeste (Jan. 2026). "Tillage-induced soil feature extraction and multi-sensors fusion for tillage system classification." Biosystems Engineering 261, p. 104329.

Development of a Method for Soil Tilth Quality Evaluation from Crumbling Roller Baskets Using Deep Machine Learning Models

Tekeste, Mehari Z, Junxian Guo, Desale Habtezgi, Jia-Hao He, and Marcin Waz (2024). "Development of a Method for Soil Tilth Quality Evaluation from Crumbling Roller Baskets Using Deep Machine Learning Models." Sensors 24.11, p. 3379.

Anderson acceleration of gradient methods with energy for optimization problems

Liu, Hailiang, Jia-Hao He, and Xuping Tian (2023). "Anderson acceleration of gradient methods with energy for optimization problems." Communications on Applied Mathematics and Computation 6, pp. 1299–1318.

Next-Generation High-Performance Biobased Naphthalate-Modified PET for Sustainable Food Packaging Applications

Lee, Ting-Han, Hengzhou Liu, Michael J Forrester, Liyang Shen, Tung-ping Wang, Huangchao Yu, Jia-Hao He, Wenzhen Li, George A Kraus, and Eric W Cochran (2022). "Next-Generation High-Performance Biobased Naphthalate-Modified PET for Sustainable Food Packaging Applications." Macromolecules 55.17, pp. 7785–7797.

Infrared thermography measurement for vibration-based structural health monitoring in low-visibility harsh environments

Jia-Hao He, Ding-Peng Liu, Cheng-Hsien Chung, and Hsin-Haou Huang (2020). "Infrared thermography measurement for vibration-based structural health monitoring in low-visibility harsh environments." Sensors 20.24, p. 7067.

Identification of multiple local damage to an offshore jacket substructure using a novel strain expansion–reduction approach

Jia-Hao He, Ding-Peng Liu, Cheng-Hsien Chung, and Hsin-Haou Huang (2020). "Identification of multiple local damage to an offshore jacket substructure using a novel strain expansion–reduction approach." Applied Sciences 10.22, p. 7991.

Multiband switching realized by a bidirectionally tunable and multiconfiguration acoustic diode

Jia-Hao He and Hsin-Haou Huang (2018). "Multiband switching realized by a bidirectionally tunable and multiconfiguration acoustic diode." AIP Advances 8.10, p. 105032.

Complete vibrational bandgap in thin elastic metamaterial plates with periodically slot-embedded local resonators

Jia-Hao He and Hsin-Haou Huang (2018). "Complete vibrational bandgap in thin elastic metamaterial plates with periodically slot-embedded local resonators." Archive of Applied Mechanics 88.10, pp. 1263–1274.

Tunable acoustic wave propagation through planar auxetic metamaterial

Jia-Hao He and Hsin-Haou Huang (2018). "Tunable acoustic wave propagation through planar auxetic metamaterial." Journal of Mechanics 34.2, pp. 113–122.

Teaching

Calculus 1 (MATH 165) — Fall 2023

Military Affiliated Tutoring — Calculus and General Physics — Fall 2023 & Spring 2024

Introduction to Data Science (DS 201) — Fall 2022

Calculus 3 (MATH 265) — Spring 2022 & 2023

Calculus 2 (MATH 166) — Fall 2021

Certificates

• Data Structures and Algorithms – Python, Udemy (August 2022)