Deployable Artificial Intelligence for Exploration and Discovery in the Deep Sea

Kakani Katija, Ph.D., is a principal engineer at MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) and has a doctorate in bioengineering from the California Institute of Technology. As lead of the Bioinspiration Lab, Kakani and her group investigate ways that imaging and broad community engagement can enable observations of ocean life. By developing novel imaging and illumination tools (e.g., DeepPIV, EyeRIS), automating the processing of visual data using artificial intelligence (FathomNet), building large-scale community science contributions through mobile gaming (FathomVerse), and integrating next-generation algorithms (ML-Tracking, DeepSTARia) on robotic vehicles (e.g., Mesobot, remotely operated vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles) to consistently and persistently observe ocean life, her group’s efforts will increase access to biology and related phenomena in the deep sea. She has received generous funding support from the Packard Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, NOAA, Schmidt Ocean Institute, Dalio Philanthropies, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, and the Moore Foundation.

Deanna Soper, Ph.D., is an associate professor of biology at the University of Dallas. She has research interests in benthic marine biodiversity in deep ocean environments, and her students have collected datasets that have examined sea star/substrate associations, as well as the abundance and distribution of coral taxa. She also teaches courses in marine biology, ecology, and evolution. She has developed and taught “Underwater Exploration,” a course based on research using video data collected via remotely operated vehicles in collaboration with MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute), CVision AI, and NOAA.