Stavros G. Vougioukas is a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of California, Davis, where he serves as vice chair and undergraduate faculty advisor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
Vougioukas works in the area of mechanization and automation of specialty crops, focusing on the design, development and testing of actuators, sensors and control systems for optimal management of inputs and products.
He received his diploma in electrical engineering from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1989. He conducted graduate studies in the United States under a Fulbright grant and several research assistantships. He received his M.Sc. in electrical and computer engineering from SUNY at Buffalo in 1999 and his robotics and automation Ph.D. in electrical, computers and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1995. Afterward, he worked for one year as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Industrial Engineering in Parma, Italy. Until 2011 he worked as faculty at the School of Agriculture of the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 2012 he joined the biological and agricultural engineering department of UC Davis.
Vougioukas has published more than 140 journal and conference papers, most of them in agricultural robotics and automation. He is currently leading several research projects on agricultural robotics – focusing on labor-saving technologies – with funding from grower commodity boards, federal agencies and private industry.