Rate My Professor Jagannath Aryal

Dr. Jagannath Aryal is an Associate Professor of Digital Infrastructure Engineering in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. He earned his PhD in Optimisation and Systems Modelling from Lincoln University, a Masters (Research) from the University of Otago, a Graduate Certificate from the University of Melbourne, and completed a Post Doctorate at CNRS, France. Aryal leads the Earth Observation and AI Research Group and served as Program Director for the Master of Digital Infrastructure Engineering and Graduate Certificate Degrees from 2022 to 2024. He directs the Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA), a flagship program between the University of Melbourne and India's premier research universities, and coordinates the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology's involvement in the Partnership in Research Indonesia and Melbourne (PRIME). Professionally, he chairs the GIS, digital analytics, and remote sensing area of practice for the Geospatial Council of Australia and has experience with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). His research collaborations span institutions including the University of Cambridge, University of Salzburg, University of Twente, and CNRS France.

Aryal's research focuses on the optimal use of Earth Observation, geo-information, and geo-statistics for urban systems modeling, disaster risk reduction, and profiling environmental systems with spatial variability. He contributes to the field as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, and editor for International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Journal of Spatial Science, and Remote Sensing. His accolades include the 2024 Service of the Year Award from the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, the 2024 Excellence Award in Engagement for Internationalisation from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, the 2023 Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Award for Educational Development (Oceania Winner), and the 2022 Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Award (Victoria). Key publications encompass 'Advancing vegetation segmentation from ALS point clouds: From benchmarking to GreenSegNet-A' (2026, Science of Remote Sensing), 'Distinct contribution of the blue spectral region and far-red solar-induced fluorescence to needle nitrogen and phosphorus assessment in coniferous nutrient trials with hyperspectral imagery' (2025, Remote Sensing of Environment), 'A novel architecture for automated delineation of the agricultural fields using partial training data in remote sensing images' (2025, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture), and 'Interdisciplinary challenges for wildfire futures' (2025, Environmental Science and Policy). Aryal delivers invited keynotes at premier remote sensing conferences.