TALiS Research
A commitment to a healthy planet and healthy people
The Technology for Living Systems Center offers a holistic approach that leverages advanced and emerging technologies to address key challenges in improving productivity and sustainability of crop and livestock systems, managing and expanding our natural resources, ensuring access to clean water, combatting biodiversity losses, and helping rural and urban communities thrive.
What we do
- Leverage technology, artificial intelligence, modeling, and data visualization (including artificial and immersive realities) to support human decision making
- Study the challenges that face farms, forests, wetlands, waterways and cities
- Improve resiliency of our crops, forests, and community health
- Promote biodiversity
- Co-develop projects with our stakeholders and focus in at scales that appropriate to our unique landscapes
Research Areas

Livestock and wildlife monitoring

Insect population and community monitoring

Plant disease monitoring

Robotics for management and harvesting

Controlled environment agriculture

Habitat quality monitoring

Modeling for crop management and conservation

Decision support tool development
Latest News
April 25, 2025
Are drones the future of tree fruit production? Researchers investigate
A team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences is addressing the growing interest among tree fruit growers in Pennsylvania and the Northeast in adopting drone-based spraying systems for high-density apple and peach orchards. The Northeast Region of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture recently awarded the team two grants to support the work.
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April 22, 2025
College of IST awards seed grants to six research projects
The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology selected six projects to receive funding from the college’s seed grant program, which provides funding to support research activities and generate preliminary results that will eventually lead to bigger projects involving external funding.
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April 22, 2025
‘Can AI Play?’ workshop explores technology in global agricultural literacy
Twelve educators from across the country had the opportunity to explore one technology — artificial intelligence — during a recent immersive workshop at Penn State University Park.
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April 2, 2025
Penn State’s Agribot Club: Where technology meets agriculture
At the intersection of technology and agriculture, Penn State’s Agribot Club in the College of Agricultural Sciences aims to shape the future of farming through robotics.
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Director, TALiS
- Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
- Email hzh@psu.edu
- Office 814-865-2633