How Soumitra Khair is driving innovation with phenotyping
- Soumitra Khair
- Robotics and Automation Expert at Syngenta
“The format of the training surprised me in the best way. It wasn’t a lecture hall experience, it was hands-on, collaborative, and full of real-world applications.”
Soumitra Khair, Robotics and Automation Expert at Syngenta. He followed the Summer School Image Analysis for Plant Phenotyping and shares his experience with us.
When Soumitra Khair boarded a plane to the Netherlands for the first time, he wasn’t just traveling for business. He was looking to build new expertise. Based in Illinois and working for Syngenta’s vegetable seed business, Soumitra had just stepped into a new role driving innovation in phenotyping and automation. He knew the technical side of data and sensors, but the biological and experimental nuances of phenotyping? That was still relatively new to him.
"I’ve done phenotyping in the past, but it was like being thrown into a project. I knew how to build the system, but not why we were doing it or how to validate the solution. That’s what I came to learn."
Soumitra joined the Summer School Image Analysis for Plant Phenotyping at Wageningen University & Research to gain the full picture: from designing an imaging pipeline to choosing the right hardware, and, from a business perspective, understanding which methods make sense to scale.
The format of the training surprised him in the best way. It wasn’t a lecture hall experience, it was hands-on, collaborative, and full of real-world applications. Participants were encouraged to bring their own challenges to the table and explore them in peer discussions.
“Each technique we learned, I immediately linked to my own use case: detecting tomatoes in greenhouses. That connection helped me grasp the content solidly. I wasn’t just listening; I was thinking....”
The tomato project wasn’t just theoretical. In the course, Soumitra and others worked on a data set involving tomato detection, perfectly mirroring a project he’s about to launch at Syngenta.
“In my upcoming work, we’ll be using object detection to identify not just the tomatoes, but also any defects. The course gave me a framework, from image acquisition to choosing the right model, and now I can lead that project with clarity.”
Even though he won’t be writing the code himself, the training gave Soumitra a deep understanding of what to ask, what to expect, and how to avoid common pitfalls when leading phenotyping initiatives with internal or external experts.
“Before this, I had implementation knowledge. Now I have the theoretical background, the design perspective, and the validation mindset. That makes all the difference when you’re managing innovat.....”
Looking back, Soumitra calls the summer school a “complete package”, one that doesn’t just teach you techniques but teaches you how to think. And for someone in a leadership role, that’s exactly what he needed.
His advice for future participants? Bring a real challenge from your work.
“Having a concrete use case made everything click. Each topic became instantly relevant. That’s how you get the most out of it.”