Assessing the opportunities for RAS to transform terrestrial biodiversity monitoring

Zoe is Professor in Biodiversity Conservation. Her research interests cover three main themes: species/community responses to environmental change; human-nature relationships and how biodiversity underpins human wellbeing; and conservation practice/policy. Zoe’s research often crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries, including geography, psychology, engineering, economics and arts. Outside of academia, she is the Chair of the Board of Trustees for British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), sits on the Natural England Science Advisory Committee and Natural England Social Science Expert Panel, and is one of four Senior Associate Editors for the journal Conservation Letters.

Email: z.g.davies@kent.ac.uk

Stephen is a Research Assistant at DICE and Visiting Research Fellow at the Sustainable Research Institute, University of Leeds. He is a physicist, ecologist and conservationist, with an extensive industrial career in the fields of analytical instrumentation, motion control and electronics.

Email: s.pringle@kent.ac.uk

Martin is a Professor of Environmental Change. He integrates research techniques from across different disciplines to better understand the sustainable management of natural environments, biodiversity and ecosystems in a human-dominated world. In particular, his work focuses on how values for nature and biodiversity underlie human health, well-being and life chances. His research interests fall into three broad areas: biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services; land degradation, sustainable agriculture, land-use and development; and urbanisation, urban greenspaces and sustainable cities.

Email: m.dallimer@leeds.ac.uk

Emma is a computer scientist who works in the area of bio-inspired computing, developing methods that are applied to a broad range of optimisation and learning problems. Her work in evolutionary robotics in particular has attracted significant media attention (e.g. in New Scientist, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Conversation). In 2021, she gave a TED Talk on Evolutionary Robotics, available online. She is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Evolutionary Computation, published by MIT Press.

Email: e.hart@napier.ac.uk

Mark is an Assistant Professor. He is an urban ecologist interested in biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services in cities. Previously, he was a PDRA on the ‘self-repairing cities’ EPSRC-funded project based at University of Leeds, where he examined the impact of robotics and autonomous systems on urban biodiversity and ecosystem function.

Email: mark.goddard@northumbria.ac.uk

Simon is Technology Director. His role covers the development, application and embedding of innovative systems through collaboration and partnership. He leads the delivery of innovative solutions to the current and future challenges faced by the utilities industries, working in close collaboration with universities, partners and the Synovate/Synthotech Ltd supply chain. This is typically within the utilities sector where innovation plays a key role in meeting stringent regulatory and decarbonisation requirements.

Email: simon.langdale@synovate.co.uk

Léni Le Goff is a lecturer in machine learning and artificial intelligence. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science and Robotics from the Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (ISIR) at Sorbonne University, Paris. During this time, he worked on the European-founded developmental robotic project DREAM. As a PDRA at Edinburgh Napier University, he contributed to the EPRSC-funded project Autonomous Robotic Evolution. His research interests focus on using machine learning and artificial intelligence to increase the adaptability and autonomy of robotic systems, as well as the automatic design of robots using artificial evolution.

Email: l.legoff2@napier.ac.uk