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Data & AI Engineer · Tech Lead — Agtegra Cooperative

Bobby Azad

Building AI for the fields, elevators, and rail lines of the American heartland.

I lead AI at Agtegra Cooperative in South Dakota — architecting production AI systems, setting technical strategy, and turning complex agricultural operations into intelligent, automated ones. 15+ years in software, 13+ of them in AI and machine learning.

Email me LinkedIn ↗ GitHub ↗ Scholar ↗
13+
Years in AI/ML
20+
Publications
950+
Citations
14
H-Index
Portrait of Bobby Azad, Data and AI Engineer and Tech Lead at Agtegra Cooperative in Aberdeen, South Dakota
Aberdeen, South Dakota

Who I Am

From research fields to production systems

I'm a Data & AI Engineer and Tech Lead at Agtegra Cooperative in South Dakota and Adjunct Faculty in Northern State University's School of Business, working at the frontier of AI, automation, agriculture, and education. My path started in software engineering, ran through graduate research in machine learning and precision agriculture at South Dakota State University, and now drives enterprise AI transformation in the American heartland.

I specialize in taking AI from whiteboard to production — designing intelligent systems, deploying ML models, building enterprise applications, and creating AI tools that put knowledge in every employee's hands. I believe great engineering is as much about the people it serves as the code it runs.

Beyond work, I'm a member of the Python Software Foundation, attend PyCon every year, and maintain open-source projects on GitHub. When I'm not at a terminal, you'll find me playing acoustic guitar on the worship team at New Life Fellowship Church in Aberdeen, or out fishing on a South Dakota lake.

Python · 13+ yrs PyTorch / TensorFlow Azure / AWS Vision Transformers Apache Airflow USPTO Provisional Patent

Recognition

  • 2nd place, Kaggle SegPC Challenge2021 · Plasma cell segmentation
  • 20+ peer-reviewed publicationsH-index 14 · 950+ citations
  • USPTO provisional patentPlant disease detection robot
  • Outstanding contributions awardAgtegra Cooperative
  • 4.0 GPA · Top of classM.Sc. AI & Agriculture, SDSU
  • FFA volunteer judgeSouth Dakota · 2025–present

What I'm Building

AI at Agtegra, from the ground up

I joined Agtegra as its first AI engineer and built the entire AI capability from scratch. Here's what's shipped and what's in the works.

Live · Production

Scout — Agtegra's first internal AI

Built from the ground up and trained on Agtegra's internal documents and institutional knowledge. Scout serves employees across the entire organization — answering questions about benefits, policies, events, and HR procedures instantly and accurately.

Enterprise AIPython AirflowNLP OCRKnowledge Base
"What's our policy on equipment reimbursement, and who do I send the form to?" — answered in seconds, from thousands of pages of company knowledge.
In Development

Natural-language database intelligence

Lets leaders query Agtegra's databases in plain English and get back both explanations and interactive visualizations — more power and flexibility than traditional reporting tools.

"Show soybean trains loaded at Northern elevators in the first week of February with moisture above 13% and protein below 34%, with discounts applied, compared year-over-year for three years."
NL-to-SQLPython Data VizAzure SQL
In Development

AI-powered train logistics optimizer

An intelligent scheduler that weighs weather forecasts, elevator inventory, predicted grain receivables, seasonal patterns, and operational constraints to plan train logistics automatically across the cooperative's network.

OptimizationForecasting LogisticsMulti-factor AI
Live · Production

Autonomous AI agents & automation

A fleet of internal AI agents running on our AI platform and Apache Airflow — ingesting and categorizing daily market news, summarizing key insights, and delivering tailored intelligence reports to the right teams automatically.

AI AgentsApache Airflow AutomationMarket Intelligence
Live · Dev/Prod

Apache Airflow platform & CI/CD

Designed, built, and administered Agtegra's Airflow platform from scratch: two Ubuntu Server environments for development and production, with GitHub-based CI/CD promoting DAGs and automation code from dev to prod safely and consistently.

Apache AirflowUbuntu Server GitHub CI/CDPlatform Engineering

Career

Work experience

Apr 2026 – Present
Data & AI Engineer · Tech Lead Current
Agtegra Cooperative · South Dakota, USA

Leading AI strategy and providing technical direction for the application and AI team, driving data-driven transformation in cooperative agriculture operations.

2026 – Present
Adjunct Faculty Current
Northern State University · Aberdeen, South Dakota

School of Business · Management, Marketing, and Information Systems

Sep 2025 – Apr 2026
Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer
Agtegra Cooperative · South Dakota, USA
  • Started as the first AI role at Agtegra, building the AI function from the ground up.
  • Designed and deployed Apache Airflow as a scalable automation and integration platform.
  • Built Scout, Agtegra's first internal AI, trained on company knowledge to serve employees across the organization.
  • Provided AI consultation across teams, bridging technical innovation with business needs.
Feb 2024 – Sep 2025
Business Intelligence Developer / AI Developer
Agtegra Cooperative · South Dakota, USA
  • Productionized Apache Airflow: deployed Linux servers, established best practices, and built 40+ DAGs for automation, data ingestion, and ML retraining.
  • Full-stack developed the Train Schedule app — automating grain discount calculations per train, generating reports, and syncing data across systems (Python, PyQt, Airflow, Azure SQL, Microsoft Fabric).
  • Full-stack developed the Grain Prices app where the grain team manages daily bids, auto-generates dozens of reporting files, and syncs pricing data with multiple ERP systems.
Feb 2023 – Feb 2024
ML Engineer
xMINDFLOW · Berlin, Germany (Remote)

Automated ML pipelines with Apache Airflow and developed transformer-based models for advanced image analysis.

May 2022 – Dec 2023
Graduate Research Assistant
South Dakota State University · South Dakota, USA
  • Developed and deployed a robot with a rotational camera system for in-field plant disease detection (e.g., Fusarium Head Blight) and filed a USPTO provisional patent.
  • Built deep learning models analyzing satellite and drone imagery for precision agriculture.
  • Led nitrogen use efficiency research using deep learning on aerial imagery and in-season bio-sensor data to optimize fertilizer application.
  • Contributed to smart laser systems for automated bird deterrence in agricultural fields.
Apr 2020 – May 2022
Backend Developer
TPDCO
  • Developed backend systems for e-commerce and warehouse platforms.
  • Built RESTful APIs and refined complex SQL queries for performance.
  • Implemented data pipelines for analytics and reporting.
Sep 2016 – Feb 2019
Graduate Research Assistant
IUST

Developed machine-learning-based anomaly detection algorithms and conducted knowledge graph analysis in the Advanced Data Mining Lab.

Prior Work

Selected projects

2022 – 2023

Nitrogen use efficiency — deep learning

Applied deep learning to aerial imagery and in-season bio-sensor data to optimize nitrogen fertilizer application — improving yield while reducing environmental impact.

Deep LearningRemote SensingPrecision AgPyTorch
2020 – 2022

TRAS — Treatment Response Analyzer

Medical imaging system predicting anti-VEGF therapy outcomes in diabetic macular edema patients, combining deep learning with clinical data to support ophthalmology decisions.

Medical ImagingDeep LearningTensorFlow
2021

Kaggle SegPC — 2nd place

Second place in the ISBI SegPC challenge for multiple myeloma plasma cell segmentation, competing against teams worldwide in medical image analysis.

SegmentationPyTorchKaggle
Ongoing

Open source on GitHub

Contributor and maintainer of open-source projects spanning ML tooling, data engineering utilities, and Python automation libraries. Explore on GitHub ↗

PythonOpen SourcePSF Member

Toolbox

Skills & expertise

Advanced proficiency

Python — PyTorch, TensorFlow, Pandas, FastAPI, PyQt13+ yrs
Machine learning & deep learning — vision, NLP13+ yrs
Databases — SQL Server, PostgreSQL, NoSQL10+ yrs
Cloud & DevOps — Docker, AWS, Azure6+ yrs
Apache Airflow — ETL & ML pipelines3+ yrs

Proficient

Linux server administration4+ yrs
Microsoft Power BI & DAX3+ yrs
C++3 yrs
Big data — Hadoop & Spark2 yrs
R2 yrs

Academic Background

Education

M.Sc.
Artificial Intelligence & Plant Science
South Dakota State University
GPA 4.0 / 4.02022 – 2023
M.Sc.
Data Science & AI
IUST
GPA 3.77 / 4.02016 – 2019
B.Sc.
Software Engineering
TVU University
GPA 3.78 / 4.02011 – 2014

Growth & Direction

Leadership & professional development

"Engineering excellence gets you to the table. Leadership is what lets you shape what's built there."

As my career grows from hands-on engineering into technical leadership, I'm deliberately investing in the skills that define great leaders — communication, strategic thinking, and the ability to move teams toward a shared vision.

Completed · 2026

Aberdeen Leadership Program

Aberdeen Area Chamber of Commerce · Aberdeen, SD

A selective three-month leadership development program focused on community engagement, effective communication, and organizational leadership — strengthening the bridge between technical expertise and people-first leadership.

Community Engagement Communication Org. Leadership

Beyond the Code

Life on the prairie

Faith & music

I'm an active member of New Life Fellowship Church in Aberdeen, where I serve on the worship team as an acoustic guitar player. Music and faith are a grounding force — the blend of community and melody recharges everything else.

Bobby Azad playing acoustic guitar with the worship team at New Life Fellowship Church in Aberdeen, South Dakota Bobby Azad serving on the worship team at New Life Fellowship Church Bobby Azad performing worship music on acoustic guitar

Hobbies

When I'm not engineering AI systems or strumming guitar, I'm enjoying South Dakota outdoor life, learning to fly as a student pilot, or winning a round of Call of Duty.

FishingHunting CampingStudent Pilot TravelingAcoustic Guitar Call of Duty
Bobby Azad enjoying the outdoors in South Dakota Bobby Azad traveling Bobby Azad — downtime and gaming
Bobby Azad at PyCon as a Python Software Foundation member

Python Software Foundation

PSF member. I attend PyCon annually, connect with the Python community, and contribute to the ecosystem that powers so much of my work.

Bobby Azad's open-source projects and contributions on GitHub

Open source on GitHub

Open-source projects spanning ML tools, data engineering utilities, and Python automation. The spirit of open source drives how I build and share.

Bobby Azad volunteering as a judge at the 2026 South Dakota State FFA competition

FFA volunteer judge

Volunteer judge for FFA student competitions since 2025, mentoring the next generation of agricultural science and technology students in South Dakota.

Let's Connect

Get in touch

Whether it's a collaboration, a technical challenge, or just a conversation about AI and agriculture — I'd love to hear from you.

gbazad93@gmail.com LinkedIn ↗ GitHub ↗