Spillfree hires Computer Vision Engineer from Panoptes

Shanmugapriya joined the team as our new Data Scientist and will help us in our work to revolutionize the feeding profession through the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning as decision support in aquaculture feeding.

Shanmugapriya Survarachakan is an enthusiastic engineer with six years of work experience in image analysis, machine learning and computer vision. She has her master’s degree from TU Munich, and are currently doing her Ph.D in deep learning medical image analysis from NTNU. She previously worked at Bayer AG in Germany and as a Computer Vision Engineer at Panoptes before joining Spillfree.

Focus on training, testing and evaluation of deep learning models in feeding videos

Shanmugapriya will primarily work on proposing and developing machine learning-based methods to optimize feeding performance. This includes important work such as pre-processing of video material from feeding situations, as well as training, testing and evaluation of deep learning models to detect pellets and study fish behavior from video analyses.

The use of AI in future aquaculture

– Computer Vision and AI in aquaculture can be a huge advantage for fish farmers to automate and help critical decisions in a regular feeding routine. In recent years, research has shown the positive effect of AI in various fields. Within aquaculture, AI can be used in several areas with high precision, such as automated feeding, classification of fish behaviour, early detection of fish diseases and biomass estimation. Each one of these plays an important role in being able to improve the quality and quantity of healthy fish production, Shanmugapriya points out.

Artificial intelligence will be incredibly important in the effort to improve feeding performance 

– Many have been disappointed by artificial intelligence development in recent years, it has become somewhat oversold, and has not delivered the results that many imagined. We at Spillfree strongly believe that AI will play an important role in the aquaculture industry in the future. It’s about understanding what it is and what it can provide, and using it in a way that provides value for the users. In Spillfree, the development of AI is based on professional understanding of biology, technology and the users themselves. We are delighted to have Shanmugapriya on the team and look forward to jointly using AI to create world-class feeding performance, says Vidar Myhre.