Rate My Professor Robert Schukei

Schukei contributes to interdisciplinary research, notably as a key collaborator on a National Science Foundation grant awarded $256,849 in July 2020. The three-year project, 'Cross Departmental Development of an Automated Species Identification System for the Phylum Tardigrada Found on Birds,' leverages automation and computer learning to streamline tardigrade specimen preparation for microscope slides and develop identification software, studying their geographic dispersion linked to birds at the Baker University Wetlands. Partnering with biology professors Scott Kimball and Irene Unger, research director Randy Miller, physicist Mahmoud Al-Kofahi, and entomologist Lynn Kimsey from UC Davis, Schukei integrated student researchers starting with the first cohort in 2022. Undergraduates participated in summer fieldwork collecting specimens from birds and habitats, lab processing, software troubleshooting, outreach, conference presentations, and potential publications, fostering discoveries of new species. Earlier, he co-chaired the 2009 Conference on Theoretical and Applied Computer Science at Oklahoma State University and advised student projects presented at Kansas Academy of Science meetings, including mobile applications and Arduino weather sensors.