D. KEN GILES, Professor

Ph.D., Agricultural Engineering, Clemson University, 1987
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
3044 Bainer Hall
Phone: 752-0687
Email: dkgiles@ucdavis.edu

Current Research

Professor Giles focuses his research on fluids and materials handling, particularly spray applications. Applications include: agricultural pest control and fertilizing operations where liquids and solids are metered onto target surfaces, industrial coating and drying operations, consumer product spraying and control of insect vectors and human disease. Related work includes sensing and control in material handling operations. A strong component of the research program is development of new technologies to reduce human exposure to irritants and contaminants and to reduce the release of hazardous chemicals into the environment, especially in agricultural spraying, cultivation and harvesting operations. Additionally, the replacement of conventional pesticide chemicals with reduced-risk or non-chemical control strategies is a goal for many of the research projects in his laboratory. Previous work has focused on storage, metering and distribution of living organisms for biologically-based pest control.

Dr. Giles’s projects are oriented to result in technological developments that are appropriate for transfer to and adoption by industrial partners. Examples of successful projects that have resulted in commercial products include sensor-based orchard sprayer control systems, pulse-width modulated spray actuators for droplet size and flowrate control, pulsed metering of anhydrous ammonia, GPS-based spray drift mitigation, detection of spray nozzle malfunctions through networked, non-wetted sensors and other current projects.

Current projects are addressing means to reduce pesticide runoff into California’s waterways during winter storms, methods to reduce dust generation during harvesting of nut crops in California, thermal spray systems for control of weeds in organic crop production, mitigation of aerosols generated from consumer cleaning products, machine-vision detection and treatment of roadside weeds, use of geographic information systems to determine and reduce spray drift from fruit and nut orchards, spray application techniques for nutrients on dormant wine grapes and development of wireless networks for monitoring spray deposition onto complex targets. Projects in Dr. Giles’s lab are financially supported by State and Federal agencies, commodity marketing boards and a number of private companies.

Representative Recent Publications

Lamm, R. D., D. C. Slaughter, and D. K. Giles. 2002. Precision weed control system for cotton. Transactions of the ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers) 45(3):539-546. Received ASAE Outstanding Paper Award 2003.

Giles, D. K., and D. Downey. 2003. Quality control verification and mapping system for chemical application. Precision Agriculture 4:103-124.

Gillis, K., D. K. Giles, D. C. Slaughter, and D. Downey. 2003. Injection mixing system for boomless, target-activated herbicide spraying. Transactions of ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers) 46(4):997-1008. Received ASAE Outstanding Paper Award 2004.

Giles, D. K., D. C. Slaughter, D. Downey, J. C. Brevis-Acuna and W. T. Lanini. 2004. Application design for machine vision guided selective spraying of weeds in high value crops. Aspects of Applied Biology 71:75-81.

Downey, D., D. K. Giles, and D. C. Slaughter. 2004. Pulsed jet microspray applications for high spatial resolution of deposition on biological targets. Atomization and Sprays 14(2):93-109.

Giles, D. K., D. Downey, and D. C. Slaughter. 2004. Liquid property and nozzle effects on flight time of pulsed jet spray. Atomization and Sprays 14(2):111-126.

Downey, D., D. K. Giles, and D. C. Slaughter. 2004. Mapping weeds using DGPS and ground based vision identification. California Agriculture 58(4):218-221.

Ho, M. A., L. M. Squire, N. C. Sabeth, D. K. Giles, and J. S. VanderGheynst. 2005. Design and evaluation of a grapevine pruner for biofungicide application. Bioresource Technology. (In Press)

Giles, D. K., D. Downey, H. Scher, D. Winetzky, T. Becker, and J. Hogue. 2005. Suppression of aerosol generation during spraying and deposition of consumer products. Atomization and Sprays. (In Press)

D. K. Giles, D. Downey, and L.M. Squire. 2005. Transient droplet size spectra from trigger sprayers dispensing aqueous solutions. Transactions of ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers). (In Press)

Membership in Professional Societies

American Chemical Society
American Society of Agricultural Engineers
Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spraying Systems

Editorships

Associate Editor, Transactions of ASAE, Applied Engineering in Agriculture
Editorial Board, Atomization and Sprays

Classes Offered

EBS 170A - Engineering Design and Professional Responsibilities
EBS 170B - Engineering Design: Design
EBS 170C - Engineering Design: Evaluation
EBS 200 - Research Methods in Biological Systems Engineering
ABT 233 - Advanced Pest Control Practices

Research Support

USDA Initiative for Future Agricultural and Food Systems
USDA National Research Initiative Air Quality Program
CDFA Specialty Crops Research Program
UC Specialty Crops Research Program
CDFA Fertilizer Research and Education Program
California State Water Quality Control Board
Genencor International, Inc.
Capstan Ag Systems, Inc.
Coalition for Urban Rural Environmental Stewardship, Inc.