2nd Seasonal School of BioAcousticAI

BioacousticAI: Understanding animal sounds with machine learning

The BioacousticAI consortium is 4-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network project focused on the intersection of bioacoustics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for wildlife monitoring and biodiversity protection.

The Consortium

Here are some key details about the consortium:

• Goal: To better understand animals and protect biodiversity by developing new AI methods for analyzing animal sounds in the context of acoustic wildlife monitoring.
• Expertise: It brings together experts in acoustics hardware, artificial intelligence (AI), animal behaviour, and ecology.
• Scope: The consortium is international, spanning 8 countries across Europe (The Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, UK, and Italy) and includes multiple universities, research institutes, museums, private companies, and NGOs.
• Research: The work involves ten fully-funded PhD projects developing advanced machine learning techniques to monitor the sounds of birds, bats, mammals, and insects, addressing challenges like localization sound events, characterizing vocal social interactions or providing new deep learning methods for biodiversity monitoring and conservation.

In short, the consortium is leveraging AI to revolutionize how we "listen" to and understand the voice of nature for conservation efforts.

Program

Monday, November 17
Doctoral Candidates Networking

10 Doctoral Candidates Sessions and Tiger Team meetings with Tom Bradfer-Lawrence (RSPB Centre for Conservation Science), Diego Llusia (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid), Clara Amorim (Lisbon University), Hans Slabbekoorn (Leiden University)

Tuesday, November 18
Policy & Conservation

Biodiversity Indicators for Policy with Kevin Darrad (INRAE), Jean-Baptiste Mihroub (MNHM) and Leo Papet (Biophonia)

Wednesday, November 19
Human Auditory Ecology

Ecoacoustics for Conservation, Human Auditory Ecology, How to Listen Soundscapes with Kate Jones (UCL), Christian Lorenzi (ENS), Jérôme Sueur (MNHM) and Sylvain Haupert (CNRS)

Thursday, November 20
Technical Workshops

Bio-logging Technologies and Low-Power/Low-CO2e Hardware Design with Ari Strandburg-Pershkin (Max-Plank Institute), Vincent Lostanien (CNRS), Pierre-Emmanuel Hladik (Centrale Nantes) and Sébastien Faucou (Université de Nantes)

Friday, November 21
AI & Ethics

Bats conservation, Discussion on AI & Ecology Opportunities, Moderated AI Ethics Discussion with Lia Gilmour (Bats Conservation Trust) and Felix Michaud (MnHM)