Research Assistant - Electronic Engineering Technology

Major Duties

• Assist with the design, assembly, and testing of electronic systems and instrumentation used in agricultural research applications.
• Support development of embedded systems, microcontroller-based devices, and sensor networks for agricultural monitoring and automation.
• Participate in building and integrating hardware systems used in precision agriculture technologies, including soil sensors, climate monitoring systems and automated irrigation controls.
• Assist with prototype development and testing of agricultural electronic devices.
• Install and maintain field-based and greenhouse-based data acquisition systems.
• Collect and manage data from sensors measuring environmental variables such as soil moisture, temperature, humidity, light intensity, and nutrient levels.
• Support integration of sensors with microcontrollers, data loggers, and wireless communication platforms.
• Afford assistance in troubleshooting hardware and software issues related to electronic systems.
• Maintain laboratory equipment used for electronics development, including oscilloscopes, multimeters, soldering equipment, and testing tools.
• Ensure compliance with laboratory safety procedures and equipment maintenance protocols.
• Afford assistance in data analysis and visualization using spreadsheets or analytical software.
• Support preparation of technical reports, research publications, and grant documentation.
• Work collaboratively with faculty, engineers, technicians on interdisciplinary research projects.
• Afford assistance in preparing materials for workshops, extension programming and educational demonstrations.

Knowledge Required By The Position

• Ability to read electronic schematics and assemble basic electronic components.
• Strong organizational and technical documentation skills.
• Basic knowledge of electronic circuits, sensors and instrumentation systems.
• Experience with microcontrollers (e.g. Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or similar platforms).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with precision agriculture technologies or agricultural automation systems.
• Familiarity with sensor networks, wireless communication (LoRa, Zigbee, Wi-Fi) or IoT platforms.
• Experience with programming languages such as Python, C/C++, or MATLAB.
• Knowledge of data acquisition systems and environmental monitoring instrumentation.
• Experience working in field-based agricultural research environments.