8th January 2021
Microlab@Bristol has been awarded seed-corn funding from the Jean Golding Institute for the project ‘Convolutional Neural Networks for Environmental Monitoring’.
Building on some pet-projects running in the background within Microlab@Bristol to help us update some of our microbiology techniques, this project will explore the application of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for the biological monitoring of UK freshwater reservoirs. CNNs are artificial intelligence networks that can be applied for automated object detection and identification from images. This project will develop and train CNNs for the automated detection and identification of fresh-water microalgae, cyanobacteria and protozoan parasites; common freshwater inhabitants that can cause significant health and water quality issues.
For this project Microlab@Bristol is working in collaboration with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water who will provide real-time water samples and identification expertise that we will use to produce high-quality, fully-annotated training datasets.
We’ll set-up a full research project webpage once we’re up and running and will also be recruiting soon for a 2 – 3 month intern to help with image production and annotation and learn skills in neural network development, training and application.
MicroLab@Bristol 