Dr. Yiannis Ampatzidis is an agricultural engineer and assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering at the California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB). He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH, Greece) in 2010, his MS in Agricultural Engineering in 2005, his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering (5-year Diploma, MSc equivalent) in 2008 and his B.S. in Agriculture and Ecology (5-year Diploma) in 2002 from the same university. He has held several research positions in Greece and USA. Most recently, Dr. Ampatzidis was a researcher in the Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS), at Washington State University (WSU). He has taught at Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, at the Technological Educational Institute of Larisa, and at the AUTH (Greece). Generally, he works in the area of mechanization and automation of specialty crop production, focusing on the design, development, and testing of sensors and control systems for optimal management of inputs, resources and products. His current research focus is on mechatronics, precision agriculture, UAVs and machine systems with special interest in development, implementation and evaluation of agricultural machines and control systems for high value crops (precision agriculture applications, embedded systems developing and programming, UAVs-drones, GIS applications). He has authored or co-authored more than 60 papers in journals/international conferences, in his areas of expertise.