Meet the Team

John T. Evans IV

Assistant Professor

John is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University, where he has been teaching and conducting research since 2019. His work focuses on the automation of off-road vehicles, combining his strong industry funding experience with a deep passion for agriculture. He teaches courses in senior design, precision agriculture, and power and machinery management while actively serving on departmental and professional committees. Committed to fostering inclusive environments, he values teamwork and collaboration. Outside of academia, he enjoys building robots and helping on the family farm. He received his B.S and M.S. from the University of Kentucky and his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska.

Email: jevansiv@purdue.edu

Nathan Sprague

Direct to Ph.D student

Nathan is pursuing a PhD 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.

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.

Email: mmardike@purdue.edu

TJ Wiegman

Masters student

Timothy "TJ" Wiegman is a Masters 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.

Email: wiegman@purdue.edu

Past Team Members

Cheyenne Simmons

MS student

Cheyenne Simmons is from Florence, Alabama, and earned a Master’s in Agricultural Systems Management. Her research focused on understanding how technology can improve everyday agricultural systems under Dr. Evans. She received her bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University in Agricultural Engineering, Business, and Technology with an emphasis in Enterprise Management.

Email: simmo120@purdue.edu

Eric Kong

Graduate Research Assistant

Eric graduated with a Master of Science in Agricultural & Biological Engineering. His research focused on modeling the environmental and economic impact of conventional and autonomous agricultural machinery in row crop production systems. He earned his undergraduate degree from Purdue’s ABE department in 2019. Throughout his academic career, he was actively involved with the Quarter Scale Tractor Team as a member and, most recently, as a technical mentor. He enjoys playing tennis, PC gaming, and building mechanical keyboards in his free time.

Email: kong44@purdue.edu

Ziping Liu

Ph.D student, co-advised with Dr. Greg Shaver

Ziping graduated with a Ph.D. in Mechanical engineering. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2017. His research interest included agricultural vehicle automation, robotics, and machine vision.

Email: liu1758@purdue.edu

Logan Huesinger

Graduate Research Assistant

Logan graduated with a Master of Science, where he worked with long-range radio, GPS positioning, and ROS robotics. He earned his undergraduate degree in agricultural engineering with a focus on machine systems from Purdue. He enjoys playing rugby for the Purdue team and working with the Purdue Utility Platform in his free time.

Email: lheusing@purdue.edu