Workshop on Computer Vision Methods for Ecology

Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute

A two-week intensive program teaching Computer Vision Methods for Ecology, seeking to empower ecologists to accurately and efficiently analyze large image, audio, or video datasets using computer vision.

Hosted at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), and supported by the NSF Global Center on AI and Biodiversity Change and Mountain Philanthropies. Past support provided by Resnick Sustainability Institute, EleutherAI, Microsoft AI for Earth, Amazon AWS, Wild Me, and past data sponsorship from Planet. Previously hosted at Caltech (2022-2025).

Our Mission

Teach Applied CV as a tool for Ecological Research

Provide instruction and tools for an accessible introduction to applied Computer Vision, with the contextual framing of ecological research needs.

Empower ecologists to build their own CV-based systems

Democratize Computer Vision and increase the accessibility and scalability of computer-vision-based solutions to natural world questions

Grow the interdisciplinary CV for Ecology community

Provide a central hub for the exchange of ideas and best practices, where expert ecologists and expert computer vision scientists can work together to face real-world challenges in conservation and sustainability

Provide access to computational resources

Cloud credits to store data, collect annotations, train models, and host solutions are provided by NSF Access. Each student will be provided with access to a high-powered GPU and data infrastructure to help take their project from research idea to reality.