Ant Wars: Ant Tracking with Computer Vision
Computer vision is a technique for extracting data from images and videos with wide applications across many fields including medicine, sports analysis, and agriculture. In this project, we are using computer vision to learn about the impacts of invasive ants on native ecosystems. Invasive Argentine ants have spread across the globe, wiping out native ants such as the California harvester ant, which helps spread seeds and maintain a diverse plant community. To understand how Argentine ants may be affecting harvester ants, we have been documenting the daily rhythm of harvester ant activity around the nest using field cameras programmed to take short videos throughout the day.
To gather useful data from these videos in an efficient way, we have been developing a custom-built ant tracking software pipeline written in Python with OpenCV which detects harvester ants against a background of dirt and pebbles, then uses these detections to construct trajectories of individual ants, and finally counts the number of ants entering and leaving the nest in four different directions. The next steps will be to test, improve, and validate the software pipeline. This will allow us to process hundreds of videos and gather useful behavioral data.
Students working on this project will (1) assess performance of current methods on existing videos, (2) modify code to improve performance, (3) run code on newly collected videos, and (4) analyze and visualize results.
You will be part of a team of students working on an interdisciplinary project, using biology, mathematics, computation and engineering to solve problems of biological and applied conservation interest. You'll also have the opportunity to spend some time outdoors, observing nature if that is of interest. The variety of techniques and approaches will give you an opportunity to explore your interests and develop new skills. This is a collaborative project with researchers at nearby universities including UC San Diego and UC Riverside, which could expand your professional network. There may be opportunities to continue the work in a senior thesis, present at a regional or national conference, and/or co-author future publications stemming from ongoing work.