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Group

Edge Computing / Feed

This group unites those working at the intersection of edge AI and conservation, focusing on real-time, on-device data processing for environmental monitoring to facilitate sharing tools, models, and strategies to overcome challenges in remote, low-connectivity areas.

Group curators

Youssef Bayouli
MSc student in Advanced Engineering for Robotics & AI. AI projects on camera traps and edge bioacoustics for bird mapping. Nat Geo & Nature Conservancy marine conservation externship alumnus.
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discussion

remote sites as 'Edge computing'

Chris Nicholas

22 March 2026 4:54pm

First and foremost, a HUGE THANK YOU!! to the Wildlabs team that put on a fabulous ICTC 2026 event in Lima ... the energy and diversity was amazing! Secondly, a HUGE thank...

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Kim Hendrikse

21 April 2026 6:30am

Oh yeah. On a Jetson that sort of thing would be viable.

Our Pi 5 is really pushing the boundaries with what we have it doing.


To put it into perspective. Our polar bear detector is round robin checking 22 cameras with a more than 20,000,000 parameter model on a middle of the range Jetson.

Alistair Stewart

22 April 2026 2:07am

Yes, I was considering inference only in this case. I see it as a filter applied to raw images and audio before uploading to cloud/server to save bandwidth (if it is necessary at all?), which I think was the OP's request. 

It is then a balance of power requirements and power stability (and physical security?) to keep a small server running and connected. But a starlink system is relatively power hungry for a remote station too, so they may have this covered.

Software wise, the "TRAPPER" system might do what you need, with a local/LAN installation and allow for admin access externally. https://os-conservation.org/trapper/

 

Chris Nicholas

8 June 2026 12:58am

nothing like a concrete, interesting problem to find focus
:-]

my partner is into chickens ... trust me, it's a whole subculture 
🤣

We were talking with friends about pecking orders , and thought... hmmmm

so, after riffing with Claude a bit, assembling RPi4+ USB Coral acclerator + Tapo 120 to tinker with RTSP streams Frigate Plus , COCO, Pytorch, etc. to automatically determine a pecking order, from an RTSP webcam.
Claude's got the strategy all figured out! 🤣

And we've got an Audiomoth and a StealthCam we use on occasion.

SO, managing/evolving that RPi4-based from behind the firewall at her house, versus mine, will be fun. 

Just installed the Wireguard client; off we go...

(Viv, top of the pecking order, sole survivor of a previous weasel attack; all the others are newcomers...)


 

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discussion

Mini AI Wildlife Monitor

Luke Ditria

25 June 2025 12:27pm

Hi All!I've been working on various version of small AI edge compute devices that run object detection and Identification models for ecological monitoring!I've recently been...

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Luke Ditria

7 June 2026 1:56pm

Hi, 
I'll try to answer the best I can.
1. 
A Pi Pico would not have the power to record and store very high resolution images
To drive the LEDs you'll need to use an LED driver module or a simple MOSFET, alternatively there are IR LED modules with a daylight sensors on them to automatically switch the LEDs on at night.
The resolution required will depend on the distance from the camera to the target and the focal length of your lens (aka how zoomed in you are).

2.
How is the Pi Zero being woken up? a PIR sensor would not likely work for insects.  also the Pi Zero takes about 10seconds to wake up from shutdown.
When does it cut power? if the battery runs out there is not much you can do?

3.
All depends on exactly what your setup is, though I would recommend fixed focus for insects.
Again without knowing your exact setup I can't really recommend a specific camera, all I can say is "get the best you can afford".


 

Sandro Von Matter

7 June 2026 6:33pm

Hey Luke,

Appreciate your reply, very much.

I am not quite sure what you mean by setup but, this is the experimental design.

I will deploy cameras in shade forest areas to record insect visitors to animal feces. The “baits” will be deployed in a flat square with a camera pointing down on it at a distance of 30 to 40 cm.

So, following your comments if PIR doesnt work what should I use? Motioneyes? Or something else?

My comments regarding the battery are related to the PI shutting down when the battery level is low and some hats just stop supplying power automatically instead of being in standby/hold. So I wonder if I could do something coding/physically to solve it. Can I?

Following your advice about the fixed lens, I would need to adjust the focus for each camera in the field to ensure everything is in focus, is that right? It's a little different than a month trap since the surface where the insects will move around is not exactly even, hence my thoughts on using a autofocus camera.

Once again thanks for the help, and congrats on your elegant project.

 

 

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Solar Powered Mini AI wildlife Monitor!

Luke Ditria

21 May 2026 2:07am

Hi all, I'm sharing the latest update to my edge-compute wildlife monitor, this time Solar powered for full off-grid operation! The Code and 3d printable STLs files for this project are all available!

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careers

Ecological Data Scientist

Lacey Hughey

21 April 2026 9:22pm

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. This position is located in the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology...

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discussion

Help us find our cover image!

Youssef Bayouli

18 February 2026 4:19pm

Hey everyone! We're giving our Wildlabs group a proper visual home and we need your help!We're looking for a cover image that truly captures the spirit of edge computing in...

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Kim Hendrikse

20 March 2026 12:02am

How about this one. Three wolves captured on a solar powered thermal imaging triggered wolf detector. One wolf about to jump the ditch to take a closer look at the horses in the field.

This marks the end of an era. The alpha she-wolf of this pack was unfortunately killed on a highway today. She raised many pups. We grieve for you Noella.Three wolves from Noella's pack

The video for this shot is here



 

Alasdair Davies

23 March 2026 9:55pm

Hi Philip,



Here's an overview and a blog on Voltaic's website. We manually recover the microSD cards, but it would also be possible to use Iridium SBD by including a Rockblock connected to the RPi for full recovery of images (although we don't need to, as the ideal situation is to remove the cameras and leave nothing behind many years later). 

Read "Three years in Antarctica - affordable and durable time-lapse monitoring - Arribada | Open Source Technology for Wildlife, People & Planet" on Arribada | Open Source Technology for Wildlife, People & Planet

Three years in Antarctica - affordable and durable time-lapse monitoring - Arribada | Open Source Technology for Wildlife, People & Planet

This solar time-lapse camera was developed to monitor penguin rookeries for Penguin Watch

Arribada | Open Source Technology for Wildlife, People & Planet • 16 Dec 2021
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discussion

Seeking input: FAIR & AI-ready wildlife drone datasets

Jenna Kline, PhD

4 March 2026 9:21am

Have you ever tried to reuse a published drone dataset, only to realize key context was missing? Or wanted to publish your drone dataset, but not sure how to start?We are seeking...

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Elsa

12 March 2026 11:11am

Hi @jennamkline , are you in the SCB Drones and Data Working Group? I think it would be great to have that as a topic for discussion during the next meeting! I'd be keen to hear more about this work.

@annavallery this might be of interest to you.

Jenna Kline, PhD

13 March 2026 2:36pm

hi @elsa thanks so much for the suggestion! i would love the SCD Drones and Data Working Group's input on this proposal. I was planning on attending one of their meetings later in March to solicit feedback. If there are additional venues to engage with the group, please let me know!

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event

Edge AI for Conservation Workshop

Jenna Kline, PhD

14 January 2026 9:04pm

Deploying Intelligence Where It Matters Most

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article

Highlights from the WILDLABS Edge Computing Group Kickoff Meeting

Jenna Kline, PhD

4 November 2025 8:38pm

Connecting people, projects, and possibilities at the edge.

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event

WILDLABS Edge Computing Group Meetup

Jenna Kline, PhD

23 October 2025 8:53pm

Connect with conservation technologists innovating at the edge — and help shape this new WILDLABS community.

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Ed Miller

25 October 2025 10:13pm

Hi @jennamkline and others,

There's some confusion on the time for this event. It's listed as November 4 at 11:00 am ~ 12:00 pm EDT (UTC -4), but daylight savings ends in the US on November 2. November 4 is during standard time. Easter Standard Time is UTC -5.

Is this meant to be 11am to noon EST?

Ed Miller

25 October 2025 10:21pm

I see the event image says 11 AM EST. I'm on the West Coast, and the Zoom page said 8 AM Pacific Time (no mention of standard vs daylight savings). After I registered, the calendar invite is showing up as 7 AM.

I believe the call will be at 8 AM PST, so that's how I have it on my calendar, but I suggest people double check!

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Solar Powering a Raspberry Pi!

Luke Ditria

23 October 2025 8:15am

I've been building a lot of experimental devices for edge computing. After not being able to to find a great solution for powering a Raspberry Pi, or other SBC, from a solar battery set-up that could also interface and communicate with the Pi we decided to create our own!

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discussion

Connecting with Conservation Tech Leaders in Kenya

Youssef Bayouli

9 October 2025 7:57am

Hi everyone! I’m currently in Nairobi, Kenya for a few days and would love to connect with fellow group leaders or community members working on conservation technology. It would...

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Susan Chege Reuben

13 October 2025 8:53am

Hi Youssef

Greetings from Arusha, Tanzania. We are happy to see that you are interested in connecting. I am a co-leader for the East Africa Group. I would like to connect and invite you for a tech-talk with our fellows, East Africans. If you have got some space, let me know.

Youssef Bayouli

16 October 2025 11:29am

Hi Susan , 
Thank you for your reply and your kind invite . Unfortunately my stay in Nairobi was short but there is a chance to come back to visit east Africa again in the beginning of November and potentially going to Tanzania . Let's keep in touch :) 

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discussion

Solar edge-AI forest watcher (prototype)

Samuel Alexander

29 September 2025 12:05pm

I’ve built a small, solar node that listens for chainsaws/vehicles/gunshots, snaps one photo on a confirmed event, logs to microSD, and sends a tiny alert over Wi-Fi. It runs...

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Christos Astaras

3 October 2025 12:39pm

Hello Samuel,

First of all, all the best of success with the Edge AI Earth Guardians contest.

Based on my experience with using PAM for poaching/hunting pressure monitoring, a photo would not be really useful - unless you have a very specific setting (which I can't think of right now). The strength of PAM is that you do not need to have line of sight to detect a sound event (unlike with camera traps). Now, if you were detecting vehicle sounds, and you had the camera at a road bent, then yes, in principle, a sound + image could be useful (but then again...the sound will trigger the sensor long before the car/truck appears in the field of view of the camera....).

My concern with real-time AI is how to eliminate false positive triggering (esp. with gunshots sounds). Unless this is resolved, I would be skeptical about the use of similar solutions (and we have tried something similar in the field). 

Finally, another concern is the way of data transmission - here you are using WiFi. So this is to be used at a homestead - farm setting, and not really at a remote forest, which is where we most need early warning systems.

Best regards, Christos 

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discussion

Exploring the Wild Edge: A Proposal for a New WILDLABS Group

Youssef Bayouli

9 June 2025 5:41pm

Over the past year, I’ve found myself returning again and again to one big question: How can we make conservation tech work where the wild really begins , where the signal...

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Nikhil Sethi

4 September 2025 1:33pm

Hey everyone!
This looks really cool and I'm really interested :)

Remote sensing is indeed one of the major challenges in conservation, especially with the rate and diversity of incoming data. I recently attended a climate codefest where the goal was to compress this incoming data using AI to make sense of it. We ended up using unsupervised learning to cluster meaningful data and transport it on limited bandwidths.

But there is so much more to do and learn! I'm glad you guys made this group. I would love to explore more of this area and learn from your experiences. 

How can I be more involved? Let me know!

Cheers, nikhil

Youssef Bayouli

20 September 2025 11:06pm

Hey Nikhil,

Thanks a lot for your message! The group is no longer just a proposal , it’s now officially created 🎉 You can join us here: 

Read "Edge Computing | WILDLABS" on

Edge Computing | WILDLABS

This group unites those working at the intersection of edge AI and conservation, focusing on real-time, on-device data processing for environmental monitoring to facilitate sharing tools, models, and strategies to overcome challenges in remote, low-connectivity areas.

 

I’d be super keen to hear more about your codefest experience , it sounds exactly the kind of knowledge-sharing that could spark great discussions. Why not share it in the group? You’re more than welcome!

Looking forward to learning from you, :)

Youssef 

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Mini AI Wildlife Monitor Build Video

Luke Ditria

13 September 2025 12:17am

This is a follow up to my previous video about this device. I've made some design updates and produced a step-by-step guide on how to create your own device! All the files and code are publicly available!

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funding

Edge AI Earth Guardians

Alex Rood

28 August 2025 2:00pm

Hackster is calling on engineers, developers, and technologists worldwide to propose innovative Edge AI solutions that address critical environmental challenges, with a focus on wildlife protection, deforestation...

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