2023 Fellow

Kaleo Roberts is a Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering and conducts research in the Radiation Laboratory with Professor Kamal Sarabandi. His research focuses on using radar for remote sensing applications. Specifically, he is conducting research on the development, validation, and application of a high-fidelity radar scattering model for corn fields. This model is indispensable for making estimates of important quantities like corn growth stage or soil moisture with satellite radars. Such estimates could be used to enable more efficient crop irrigation and make better predictions of crop yield. The scattering model uses a numerical electromagnetic solver and 3D models of corn plants to predict the backscatter that a radar may see. Those predictions will then be used to build an inverse model that will relate measured radar backscatter to an estimate of growth stage or soil moisture. It is hoped that the inverse model will be shared with other researchers to aid them in using radar to enhance the cultivation of corn.

Outside of research, Kaleo volunteers with the department’s amateur radio club (W8UM), which seeks to give students hands-on experience with radio operation and technology.