Department of Ag and Biological Engineering,
Purdue University, IN
Meet the Team
John T. Evans IV
Assistant Professor
John is an Agricultural Engineer with a teaching and research appointment in the Department of Agriculture and Biological Engineering. He received his Ph.D in 2018 from the University of Nebraska in Biological Systems Engineering.
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Email: jevansiv@purdue.edu
Cheyenne Simmons
MS student
Cheyenne Simmons is from Florence, Alabama and is pursuing a Masters in Agriculture System Management Research to better understand how Technology can improved our everyday Agriculture systems under Dr. Evans. She received her Bachelors from Mississippi State University in Agriculture Engineering, Business, and Technology with a emphasis in Enterprise Management.
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Email: simmo120@purdue.edu
Nathan Sprague
MS student
Nathan is pursuing a Master of Science in Agricultural & Biological Engineering. His research involves the development of an open-source inter-row navigating and sampling robot. He recieved his undergraduate degree in Agricultural Engineering at Purdue. Nathan has been involved in the Purdue Quarter Scale team, where he has served as a co-captain and is currently an officer. Nathan's hobbies include programming and distro hopping. After graduation, Nathan would like to get an industry job working on autonomous systems in agriculture.
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Email: nspragu@purdue.edu
Michael Mardikes
Ph.D student
Michael is currently pursuing his PhD in mechanical engineering. He received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri in 2020 and his M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Missouri – Kansas City in 2022. His research is focused on developing autonomous agriculture solutions. Michael likes to spend his time making robots, cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs, and flying.
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Email: mmardike@purdue.edu
TJ Wiegman
Direct to Ph.D student
Timothy "TJ" Wiegman is a Ph.D. student in Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He received his B.S. in Engineering Physics (Electrodynamics) from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2020, then worked as an electronics design engineer until enrolling at Purdue. His research interests include agricultural automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
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Email: wiegman@purdue.edu
Past Team Members
Eric Kong
Graduate Research Assistant
Eric is currently pursing a Master of Science in Agricultural & Biological Engineering. For his research, he is modeling the environmental and economic impact of conventional and autonomous agricultural machinery in row crop production systems. He received his undergraduate degree from Purdue’s ABE department in 2019. Throughout his academic career, he has been involved with the Quarter Scale Tractor Team as a member and most recently, technical mentor. He enjoy playing tennis, PC gaming, and building mechanical keyboards during my free time. After graduation, his tentative plan is to get an industry job and then determine if he want to pursue a PhD.
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Email: kong44@purdue.edu
Logan Huesinger
Graduate Research Assistant
Logan is a second year master student working with long range radio and gps positioning in addition to working with ROS robotics. He graduated from Purdue with an undergraduate degree in agricultural engineering focused in machine systems. He enjoys playing rugby for the Purdue team and working with the Purdue Utility Platform in his free time.
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Email: lheusing@purdue.edu
Ziping Liu
Ph.D student, co-advised with Dr. Greg Shaver
Ziping is a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical engineering. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2017. His research interest includes agricultural vehicle automation, robotics, and machine vision.
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Email: liu1758@purdue.edu
