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Jihao You


Position/Title: Ph.D. Candidate
email: jyou03@uoguelph.ca
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Currently, I am a second-year Ph.D. student at the Department of Animal Biosciences, supervised by Dr. Jennifer Ellis. My co-supervior is Dr. Dan Tulpan. My research interest is the application of machine learning and data science in animal production systems and the feed manufacturing process, as the predictions, strategies and data-based decisions made by machine learning algorithms can help improve the efficiency of animal production and feed manufacturing, reduce their impact on the environment and improve economics.

My research project is the optimization of pellet quality at the mill level using machine learning (Funded by: OMAFRA/Trouw Nutrition). Manufacturing pelleted feeds are complicated multifactorial products, despite what most people would think. The pellet quality can be affected by a large number of factors such as manufacturing parameters, feed formulation, and even the current weather. In this project, it was the first time to apply machine learning to the big data collected in a commercial feed mill. It was transformative and innovative to investigate the relationship between the many factors and the pellet quality. By optimizing mill production parameters, the ultimate goal is to improve pellet quality, reduce feed wastage, optimize feed efficiency, and reduce CO2 emissions. 

I'm also participating in the project of hybridization of machine learning and mechanistic models to create 'intelligent' precision nutrition models for next-generation dairy production (Funded by: OMAFRA/Trouw Nutrition). This project aims to move the field of precision nutrition in dairy cattle production forward towards economic and environmental sustainability.

Recent publications (2022-)

  • You, J., Ellis, J.L., Adams, S.M., Sahar, M., Jacobs, M., and Tulpan, D., 2023. Comparison of imputation methods for missing production data of dairy cattle. animal, p.100921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2023.100921
  • Leishman, E.M., You, J., Ferreira, N.T., Adams, S.M., Tulpan, D., Zuidhof, M.J., Gous, R.M., Jacobs, M. and Ellis, J.L., 2023. When worlds collide–Poultry modelling in the ‘Big Data’era. animal, p.100874. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2023.100874
  • Zuidhof, M.J., Afrouziyeh, M., van der Klein, S.A. and You, J., 2023. Smart Poultry Nutrition. In Smart Livestock Nutrition (pp. 201-225). Cham: Springer International Publishing.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22584-0_8
  • You, J., Tulpan, D., Malpass, M.C. and Ellis, J.L., 2022. Using machine learning regression models to predict the pellet quality of pelleted feeds. Animal Feed Science and Technology293, p.115443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2022.115443