About the Forum

Background

Computer vision (CV), the automated extraction of meaningful information from digital images, is a blossoming methodological field that has the potential to eliminate a long-standing bottleneck in digital image analysis. The increasing use of high-throughput CV has already led to scientific advances in various fields (e.g., medical research, agricultural sciences, and remote sensing). The goal of this forum was to explore how CV can be used to break new ground in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, and to facilitate the use of classical or artificial intelligence-based CV among biologists.

The event

77 registered participants gathered for five days to present and discuss the latest advances in the rapidly changing field. The forum began with a special symposium featuring four speakers from Lund University, which aimed at better connecting local biologists and computer scientists. The rest of the week was largely characterized by interaction between participants and speakers: there were 8 one-hour keynote talks, 21 shorter presentations, and 6 posters. In addition to a discussion on future directions, there was an extensive social program with several pub nights, team activities at the local science center “Vattenhallen”, and countless conversations during coffee breaks.

Overall, feedback on this event was largely positive, and it was expressed that there will be follow-up events of this type, as well as more computer-vision-oriented symposia at biological conferences.

Snapshots