Data Science for Eco-Systems Research Group (DS4ES)
The DS4ES research group, is part of the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, Stellenbosch University and is in collaboration with the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. The group strives to bridge the gap between ecology and machine learning by supervising brilliant students and producing novel research in machine learning for bioacoustics research and conservation ecology. The group was established in early 2022.
Group Members
Core Team
Dr. Emmanuel Dufourq - AIMS-Canada Junior Research Chair in Data Science for Climate Resilience
Prof. Kanshukan Rajaratnam - director of the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking
Prof. Francesco Petruccione - interim director of the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS)
Postdocs
Dr. Lorène Jeantet
Research Associates
Dr. Guilherme Frainer
Current Masters Students
Abraham Chakawa
Charles Herbst
Dean Blackburn
Donovan Broughton
Dumisani Namakhwa
Milanto Rasolofohery
Roanné Coetzer
Santeshan Naidoo
Current Honours (4th year) Students
Dean Hunter
Laura Jackson
Matthew Garret
Collaborators and Projects
We are collaborating with students and researchers across Africa and Internationally.
Penguin Behaviour Classification
Researchers and collaborators:
Dr Anna Bastian (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)
Sara Beery (Caltech, United States)
Dr. Lorène Jeantet
Roanné Coetzer
Estimating Cue Rates for Beaked Whales via Convolution Neural Networks
Researchers and collaborators:
Prof Tiago Marques (University of Lisbon, Portugal, University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom)
Dr Kalliopi Gkikopoulou (University of St. Andrews, United Kingdom)
Masters student: Tomas Gueifao (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
Automated Detection of Critically Endangered Hainan Gibbon Calls
Researchers and collaborators:
Dr Heidi Ma (Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom)
Dr Ian Durbach (University of St. Andrews, UK, University of Cape Town, South Africa)
Masters student: Nonhlanhla Luphade (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
Disruptive Information Technologies for Climate Change Mitigation
Mandlenkosi Gwetu (University of Kwazulu-Natal)
Abdolrasoul Habibipour (Luleå University of Technology, Sweden)
Ashok Tripathi (LUT University, Finland)
Jari Porras (LUT University, Finland)
Automated Detection of Critically Endangered Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs Calls
Researchers and collaborators:
PhD student: Carly Batist (Hunter College, City University of New York, United States)
Enhancing Machine Learning for Bioacoustics
Researchers and collaborators:
Dr. Lorène Jeantet
Dr Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa (Malawi University of University and Technology, Malawi)
Ruben Foquet (Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation, Belgium)
Abraham Chakawa
Dumisani Namakhwa
Donovan Broughton
Laura Jackson
Dr Kabano Ignace (University of Rwanda, Rwanda)
Boris Mikwa (University of Rwanda, Rwanda)
Aime Nshimiyimana (University of Rwanda, Rwanda)
Santeshan Naidoo
Automated Detection of Spotted Hyenas Calls
Researchers and collaborators:
Dr. Emily Bennitt (University of Botswana, Botswana)
Masters student: Rethabile Setlalekgomo
Automated Detection and Classification of Dolphin Sounds
Researchers and collaborators:
Dr. Guilherme Frainer (SeaSearch, University of Cape Town, South Africa)
Institutional Collaborators
African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
ACoustic CUe RATEs for passive acoustic density estimation
Biodiversity Inventory for Conservation
News
- 15/05/2022: We congratulate Alex Mirugwe on the acceptance of his paper titled “Automating bird detection based on webcam captured images using deep learning" to appear at SAICSIT2022.
- 05/05/2022: Dr. Emmanuel Dufourq will be presenting a skills showcase titled “Deep learning and bioacoustics" at ISEC2022.
- 01/01/2022: Dr. Emmanuel Dufourq is part of the PIs who launched the “Advancing biodiversity informatics and ecological modelling" NITheCS Research Programme.
Open Access Datasets
Open Access Software
