Research in these areas is conducted in the department's high-tech teaching and research laboratory, the Kimbrough Precision Agriculture and Remote Sensing Engineering Laboratory (PARSEL) and the demonstration facility, the MAFES / ABE Mini-Gin. State-of-the art instrumentation and computer software is available in the department for remote sensing, precision agriculture, and GPS/GIS applications. Active projects include: development of a new yield monitors for cotton and sweet potatoes, kenaf processing, instrumentation for the automated inventory and in-pond assessment of catfish, satellite data for crop management, remote sensing of soil properties, harvesting and processing of switchgrass for biomass, gasification of biomass for ethanol production, soybean yield improvement through remote sensing (part of SMART program), robots in agricultural production and management, improvement of cotton ginning operations, variable rate technology for agriculture, and spectrophometric analysis of crop materials.