Leslie Hickle, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, CEO
- Biotech Entrepreneur
- Startup & product launches in Agriculture & Animal Health
- IPM Innovator Award, CA-DPR 2000
Our story
Designed by entomologists,
AI researchers, and growers.
FarmSense was founded on a simple belief: the world's growers shouldn't be making spray decisions based on a sticky trap checked once a week. We're rebuilding pest monitoring from the wingbeat up.
Mission
Spray less. Harvest more. Stay ahead of the next infestation.
Our patented optical-acoustic FlightSensor turns every wingbeat into a data point. Growers get hourly species-level intelligence on the pests in their fields — without lifting a finger.
We work with researchers at leading agricultural universities and with growers across California, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond to continuously expand our species library and sharpen accuracy.
Our values
What guides the work.
01
Science first
Every model is validated against ground-truth entomology — no black boxes in the orchard.
02
Built for the field
Our hardware lives outdoors for years. We design for solar, dust, and dropped signal.
03
Grower-led
Features ship because a grower asked for them, not because they look good in a deck.
Our team
The people behind FarmSense.
Entomologists, AI researchers, and operators with decades of combined experience in agriculture, machine learning, and the field.
Ken Wong, B.Eng., MBA
CFO
- Career in technology, finance & accounting
- CFO for startups in SaaS, franchises, agriculture, wealth management, marketing, and IOT
Shailendra Singh, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, CTO
- Entrepreneur
- Expert in system design and building
Cliff Kitayama, Ph.D.
VP Field R&D
- Licensed Pest Control Advisor
- New product R&D
- IPM Innovator Award, CA-DPR 2013
Eamonn Keogh, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, CSO
- Top 10 data-mining / machine learning researcher
- 300+ papers, Google Scholar h-index of 100
- Fastest promotion to Distinguished Prof at UCR
- 2021 IEEE Research Contributions Award Winner
R. Tracy Ellis, Ph.D.
Customer Success
- Career entomologist with customer service focus
- Extensive outreach & education to growers, agencies, stakeholders, and communities
- Pest control advisor, Qualified Applicator, County Agricultural Biologist Licenses
Stefano Tata, M.S.
Software Engineer
- Computer Engineer specialized in Data Science
- Application and database expert
Shahab Nikkhoo
Embedded Systems Engineer
- Specialized in IoT hardware and firmware
Heath Matthews
Software Developer
- Electrical and computer engineer with a background in machine learning and embedded systems