Animals | Interview with the Author—Dr. Guoming Li
We recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Guoming Li about his paper “Tracking and Characterizing Spatiotemporal and Three-Dimensional Locomotive Behaviors of Individual Broilers in the Three-Point Gait-Scoring System” which was published in Animals (ISSN: 2076-2615) in 2023 and has received a significant amount of positive feedback from readers.
The following is a brief interview with Dr. Guoming Li:
1. Dr. Li, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your current research?
I am a director of the Intelligent Systems for Poultry Laboratory and an Assistant Professor of the Department of Poultry Science at the University of Georgia, USA. I am also an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the Institute for Integrative Precision Agriculture, and the School of Computing at the University. I was a post-doc in the Department of Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering and Animal Science at Iowa State University. I got my Ph.D. degree in agriculture engineering from Mississippi State University and my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, majoring in agriculture engineering, from China Agricultural University.
My mission and current lab research are related to conducting cutting-edge research on integrated precision management and the application of digital technologies into vertically integrated poultry production systems and beyond, including data analytics, automation, and models.
My research topics include poultry smart sensing and environmental control, applied artificial intelligence, robotics, automated animal welfare assessment, digital phenotyping, three-dimensional reconstruction, and automatic behavior monitoring and analytics.
2. What inspired you to conduct this research?
During my undergraduate studies at China Agricultural University, I visited a lot of poultry farms to complete my undergraduate thesis or capstone projects. Those farms included different types of integrated poultry production systems such as breeder farms, hatcheries, and commercial farms. It was clear that most of the chores still heavily rely on human involvement, as human caretakers spend a lot of time completing their jobs, which is very laborious for production. There is a risk that animal farming will become extremely limited due to human resource shortages, as many young generations are not choosing this field for their careers and future jobs. Sensing and automation can address the practical needs and challenges in various phases of animal production. This is a motivation to conduct my research. I aim to ensure that, thanks to this research, we have sufficient and affordable protein to consume in the future with improved workforce and production efficiency.
3. What do you think made the academic community respond so well to your research? What do you think readers can learn from your article?
Research for the publication “Tracking and Characterizing Spatiotemporal and Three-Dimensional Locomotive Behaviors of Individual Broilers in the Three-Point Gait-Scoring System” was conducted when I was a post-doc at Iowa University. My co-authors, Dr. Richard S. Gates, Dr. Meaghan M. Meyer, and Dr. Elizabeth A. Bobeck, are very well-known scholars in this field. I believe multidisciplinary innovations are the key to attracting a lot of attention in research. This research addresses a very significant problem in current commercial broiler farming, which is lameness, and it is highly related to animal welfare and precision poultry farming. Nearly 50-70% of commercial broilers are suffering from moderate-to-severe lameness, especially in the late phases of production. To solve this, we examined the gait score. Gait scoring is a useful measure for evaluating broiler walking ability, production efficiency, welfare status, bone quality, and physiology. The research objective was to track and characterize the spatiotemporal and three-dimensional locomotive behaviors of individual broilers with known gait scores by jointly using deep-learning algorithms, depth sensing, and image processing. We aimed to develop automated methods by integrating different sensing techniques and we found the method was feasible to automate the gain scoring process, which can save labor and provide timely report bird lameness to the producers. Therefore, producers can take advantage of early intervention for this abnormality. From another aspect, it synergizes and modifies different techniques and methods such as 3D sensing, image processing, and deep learning, which are very hot topics right now, and those integration methods and modifications are still very new for the agriculture engineering community. The whole study provides solid steps to validate these proposed tools and this is very inspiring to the engineers. This can be a feasible solution to address these needs and questions.
4. What do you think are the future directions for your research?
We have multiple ongoing projects and some future directions still surround the research mission that I mentioned earlier, such as integrating newer methods, algorithms, and newer solutions for the poultry sector system that can support production. Continuing our research with the gait scoring system, we were funded by some organizations and institutions that play important roles in the poultry sector. We are developing our research in poultry robotics, not only focused on sensing but also on ways to pick up lame chickens with robots. These robots can work 24/7, which can reduce human involvement and also enhance the efficiency and productivity of the farm. This is a very convenient solution in poultry production.
5. Why did you choose Animals as the best platform for your work?
As a young scholar, the Animals journal provides a lot of support. I also served as a Guest Editor of multiple Special Issues. So from my perspective, Animals provides a lot of support for publication, which is very important for young scholars with limited funding in the beginning. At the early stage of our research path, we want to maximize our funds and we are happy to receive any additional support that can help us grow so we appreciate the journal’s support. That was a major motivation for me to select Animals. Also, MDPI’s procedures enhance the early and fast publishing of the work and thanks to that, it can gain more attention around the world which influences the decision of where to publish.
6. What advice would you give to young scholars seeking to get into academia or publish their work?
To be honest, there are a lot of young scholars who are more successful than I am, but as an Assistant Professor and graduate advisor, I do have some advice for people who just got into this field. As my post-doc advisor always mentioned — Your work will tell itself. You don’t need to worry about the world not recognizing you, as long as you keep doing great and impactful research work, the whole community will recognize you in a specific moment. You do not have to worry about the future but you just have to perform your best. You have to find your passion in the research that greatly excites you. Passion is about curiosity and perseverance, which are very crucial among academics. You have to build very strong networks with mentors, peers, and professionals in the field. Attending conferences, workshops, and seminars is helpful to expand your network and stay updated with the latest research in the community. You have to have mentorship with some mentors who can guide you through the academic landscape. Those mentorships are not only for graduate students but for faculty as well. You should be persistent—while acceptance is rewarding, rejections are part of the process. Learn from the feedback and improve yourself, and then your work will be definitely accepted. It is important to find a work-life balance between research and your personal life. Academic life can be very demanding. There can be endless work and meetings that are waiting for you. Make sure to find the balance and don’t exhaust yourself.