Drew Weber is a tech geek and a birder who is always looking for new ways to combine technology with his favorite pastime. Mr. Weber has been building apps for birders for nearly a decade, and for the past six years he has managed the content and technical development of the Merlin Bird ID app. He enjoys working with birding and conservation organizations around the world, collaborating to make Merlin a global app and engaging new birders in a growing number of languages. A favorite part of Mr. Weber’s job is using machine learning with the billion bird observations in eBird and millions of uploaded photos and sounds in Macaulay Library to build new bird identification tools like the recently released sound identification feature in Merlin as well as the Swarovski Optik dG monocular that directly connects to Merlin to identify birds using Photo ID.
Event Overview
We’ll walk through how Merlin works its magic and share how Merlin can be used to inspire curiosity and advance conservation. Join us for a live demonstration of the app and discover all the features available in Merlin.
Image Credit: ©Brad Imhoff/Macaulay Library
What You'll Learn
- The innovative features of Merlin Bird ID
- How Merlin Bird ID was created
- The ways in which Merlin Bird ID can help you identify the birds you see and hear
- How you can help power Merlin Bird ID and be part of the community
Speakers
Grant Van Horn is a machine learning researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where he mixes his passion for computational research and the natural world. He completed his Ph.D. at Caltech, where his thesis focused on combining humans and machines to solve fine-grained visual classification tasks. During his Ph.D. studies, Mr. Van Horn created Merlin Photo ID for classifying bird species, built the computer vision systems that powers the citizen science app iNaturalist, and created the real-time visual classification system that powers the app Seek. Most recently, he has branched into the world of acoustics, where his work now powers the sound identification feature of Merlin Bird ID.
Jessie Barry is the program manager for the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She joined the Cornell Lab in 2008 and launched Merlin in 2014. Ms. Barry is thrilled to be part of an incredible interdisciplinary team that brings together birds, technology, and science communications to connect people to birds and conservation worldwide. She graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and has an MBA from the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University.
Drew Weber is a tech geek and a birder who is always looking for new ways to combine technology with his favorite pastime. Mr. Weber has been building apps for birders for nearly a decade, and for the past six years he has managed the content and technical development of the Merlin Bird ID app. He enjoys working with birding and conservation organizations around the world, collaborating to make Merlin a global app and engaging new birders in a growing number of languages. A favorite part of Mr. Weber’s job is using machine learning with the billion bird observations in eBird and millions of uploaded photos and sounds in Macaulay Library to build new bird identification tools like the recently released sound identification feature in Merlin as well as the Swarovski Optik dG monocular that directly connects to Merlin to identify birds using Photo ID.
Grant Van Horn is a machine learning researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where he mixes his passion for computational research and the natural world. He completed his Ph.D. at Caltech, where his thesis focused on combining humans and machines to solve fine-grained visual classification tasks. During his Ph.D. studies, Mr. Van Horn created Merlin Photo ID for classifying bird species, built the computer vision systems that powers the citizen science app iNaturalist, and created the real-time visual classification system that powers the app Seek. Most recently, he has branched into the world of acoustics, where his work now powers the sound identification feature of Merlin Bird ID.
Jessie Barry is the program manager for the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She joined the Cornell Lab in 2008 and launched Merlin in 2014. Ms. Barry is thrilled to be part of an incredible interdisciplinary team that brings together birds, technology, and science communications to connect people to birds and conservation worldwide. She graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and has an MBA from the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University.
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