My name is Frank Short and I am a PhD Candidate at Boston University in Biological Anthropology. I am currently doing fieldwork in Indonesia using machine-learning powered passive acoustic monitoring focusing on wild Bornean orangutans (and other primates). I am reaching out because as a student with a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, I am eligible to take advantage of the NSF INTERN program which supports students to engage in non-academic internships through covering a stipend and other expenses, with the only caveat being that the internship must be in-person and not remote. I was wondering if any organizations in conservation technology would be interested in a full-time intern that would be coming in with their own funding? 

In addition to experience with machine learning and acoustics through training a convolutional neural network for my research, I also have worked with GIS, remote sensing, and animal movement data through other projects. Further, I have experience in community outreach both in and outside of academic settings, as I previously worked for the Essex County Department of Parks and Recreation in New Jersey for 3 years where I created interpretive signs, exhibits, newsletters, brochures, and social media posts. Now while doing my fieldwork in Indonesia, I have led hands-on trainings in passive acoustic monitoring placement and analysis as well as given talks and presentations at local high schools and universities. 

I would love to be able to use this opportunity (while the funding still exists, which is uncertain moving forward due to the current political climate in the US) to exercise and develop my skills at a non-academic institution in the conservation technology sphere! If anyone has any suggestions or is part of an organization that would be interested in having me as an intern, please contact me here or via my email: fshort@bu.edu geometry dash. Thank you!

Hi Frank, your work sounds incredibly valuable and well-aligned with current needs in conservation tech. With your strong background in machine learning, acoustics, GIS, and outreach, you’d be an asset to many organizations. I’d recommend looking into groups like Rainforest Connection, Wildlife Acoustics, or the Conservation Tech Directory (by WILDLABS)—they often work on acoustic monitoring and might be open to in-person internships, especially with funding already in place. Best of luck finding the right match—your initiative is impressive!

Hi @iainmcnicol , welcome to WILDLABS! Thanks for posting this on here. I have shared with my colleagues at Fauna & Flora who have some experience (especially with the deforestation alerts) and could maybe provide feedback as well. We also have a page on 'The Inventory' where we're asking people to review various data products, tools, platforms etc including one for Global Forest Watch. As you can see not many reviews currently so it would be great (if possible by anonymising responses etc.) to get the information from your survey and translate this into something we could add to 'The Inventory' for the wider community. Let me know your thoughts on this!

Also is there a closing date for the survey?

Hi Simon,
Did you already contact INBO? Both biologging and citizen science are big themes at INBO. Last year we had a master thesis on camera trapping invasive muntjac. You can send me a private message for more info!

Hi Simon,

We're a biologging start-up based in Antwerp and are definitely open to collaborate if you're interested. We've got some programs going on with local zoo's. Feel free to send me a DM if you'd like to know more.

Hi Simon,
We (Reneco International Wildlife Consultants) have an ongoing collaboration with a local University (Abu Dhabi, UAE)  for developing AI tools (cameratrap/drone images and video analyses) and biomimetic robots applied to conservation (e.g  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124004813 ). We also have a genetic team working on eDNA.    Field experience could be possible, in UAE or Morocco.
Feel free to write me back if you may be interested and would like to know more
 

Hi Matthew

Wow, what an amazing project! It is incredible how you have managed to figure out some of the complexities of combining underwater imagery with UAV imagery. I am sure that was a fascinating learning experience. 

I cannot help you with Points 1 and 3 but can suggest using Orfeo Toolbox for your segmentation process in Point 2. It integrates with QGIS and is open source. It will work with your UAV ortho maps if there is enough visible detail of the corals. You will be able to build and train your own model in order to accurately segment you reef. It takes a bit of know how to us the Machine Learning algorithms but once you get the hang of it it becomes immensely powerful. I will be building an online course on how to build your own machine learning processing algorithms in 2025 using this brilliant package. Once segmented you can save out the shapefiles and use them to segment and define your 3D point clouds in Agisoft.

Alternatively, look into using Picterra Geospatial AI. It is cloud based and much simpler to use but you may need to compress your imagery or point clouds in order to upload them given the file size you mentioned above.  (Although they probable do allow for large uploads these days, I used Picterra in the past and it was brilliant!). Also i am not sure if it works with point clouds directly but have a look

I hope this helps. Great project!

That's a great question! I don't have any answers but my first thought was that the detection part of the problem looks very different when you're looking for plants vs animals (no camera traps, audio recorders, etc.) and often quite hard, as you're having to discriminate species that may be difficult to identify even in hand. 

I'd love to hear more from people who are working on this!

This is amazing! Thank you for sharing. I'm speaking on this topic at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in October. If you have any other resources on this topic, let me know! Closing the loop for "Science to Action" is a huge part of the work we do so I'm always looking to learn.