Nikolaos Tziolas

Nikos Tziolas is a soil scientist and AI researcher specializing in Earth-observation–driven analytics for agro-environmental systems. He leads the Soil Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University of Florida.

His work develops trustworthy AI and geospatial intelligence pipelines that integrate satellite data, proximal sensing, and in-situ measurements to track dynamic soil properties and strengthen agricultural resilience and productivity. He has contributed to multiple federally and internationally funded projects advancing Earth-observation monitoring and scalable AI for large geospatial datasets. His recent research explores foundation models and explainable AI for robust soil inference, improving transparency and adoption, along with conversational AI systems that let users query Earth observation data and deploy AI models using natural language. In parallel, he develops robotic and field-sensing workflows for scalable data collection and validation, linking ground observations with satellite products to strengthen model accuracy.

His long-term vision is to democratize access to diverse data through trustworthy AI and shorten the time from data to decision, enabling faster, clearer, and more actionable insights for growers, extension agents, and public agencies.