Edge Computing for Conservation
A curated, community-maintained hub for edge computing and edge AI methods, tools, datasets, and deployments in conservation.
About
I am a PhD candidate studying computer science and engineering at The Ohio State University, with an expected graduation date of Spring 2026.
Currently looking for Fall 2026 opportunities!
I develop agentic, multi-modal autonomous remote sensing systems that use edge AI to enable adaptive sampling for environmental monitoring.
My work creates intelligent agents that dynamically adjust their sensing strategies in real-time based on environmental conditions and data patterns. These systems combine computer vision, robotics, and edge computing to make autonomous decisions in the field, optimizing data collection for ecological research and conservation applications. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, I bridge cutting-edge AI capabilities with practical environmental monitoring needs.
I am fortunate to be coadvised by Dr. Christopher Stewart and Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf, and contribute to the ICICLE and Imageomics Research Institutes at OSU.
Check out my posts on bsky! 🦋
Projects
WildLabs Edge Computing Group, Co-lead, 2025–2026 Group Leadership Programme.
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. Join here!
SmartWilds
Bridging Digital and Natural Worlds at The Wilds.
kabr-tools
Study animal behavior drone videos using computer vision.
wild-wing
Autonomously track group-living animals using drones.
adae workloads
Characterizing and modeling AI-Driven Animal Ecology (ADAE) studies at the edge.
Selected Publications
Please refer to my Google Scholar for up-to-date paper list.
Studying collective animal behaviour with drones and computer vision
Jenna M. Kline, Saadia Afridi; Edouard G. A. Rolland; Guy Maalouf; Lucie Laporte‐Devylder; Christopher Stewart; Margaret Crofoot; Charles V. Stewart; Daniel I. Rubenstein; Tanya Berger‐Wolf
Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2025
[Paper]
[Video]
MMLA: Multi-Environment, Multi-Species, Low-Altitude Drone Dataset
Jenna M. Kline, Samuel Stevens, Guy Maalouf, Camille Rondeau Saint-Jean, Dat Nguyen Ngoc, Majid Mirmehdi, David Guerin, Tilo Burghardt, Elzbieta Pastucha, Blair Costelloe, Matthew Watson, Thomas Richardson, and Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist
C4Animals Workshop @ CVPR 2025
[Paper]
[Website]
[Code]
[Data]
[Model]
WildWing: An open-source, autonomous and affordable UAS for animal behaviour video monitoring
Jenna M. Kline, Alison Zhong, Kevyn Irizarry, Charles V. Stewart, Christopher Stewart, Daniel I. Rubenstein, and Tanya Berger-Wolf
Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2025
[Paper]
[Code]
[Data]
[Blog]
Characterizing and Modeling AI-Driven Animal Ecology Studies at the Edge
Jenna M. Kline, Austin O'Quinn, Tanya Berger-Wolf and Christopher Stewart
ACM/IEEE Symposium on Edge Computing - SEC 2024
[Paper]
[Code]
[Slides]
A Framework for Autonomic Computing for In Situ Imageomics
Jenna M. Kline, Christopher Stewart, Tanya Berger-Wolf, Michelle Ramirez,
Samuel Stevens, Reshma Ramesh Babu, Namrata Banerji, Alec Sheets, Sowbaranika Balasubramaniam,
Elizabeth Campolongo, Matthew Thompson, Charles V. Stewart and Maksim Kholiavchenko,
Daniel I. Rubenstein. Nina Van Tiel, and Jackson Miliko
4th IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems - ACSOS 2023
[Paper]
[Code]
Integrating Biological Data into Autonomous Remote Sensing Systems for In Situ Imageomics: A Case Study for Kenyan Animal Behavior Sensing with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Jenna M. Kline, Maksim Kholiavchenko, Otto Brookes, Tanya Berger-Wolf, Charles V. Stewart, and Christopher Stewart
AAAI 2024, Workshop on Imageomics: Discovering Biological Knowledge from Images using AI
[Paper]
[Data]
Invited Talks & Presentations
Drones and AI in Field Animal Ecology: Integrating Biology, Animal Science, and Technology.
Invited lecture at the University of Findlay. Watch the recording here.From Ohio to Kenya: Autonomous Drones in Field Ecology and Conservation
Conservation Science Symposium, Muskingum University and The Wilds, OH.Individual Identification of Zebras with Autonomous UAV Swarms
Won first prize for Best Poster Award at the Translational Data Analytics Interdisciplinary Research Fall Forum 2024 in Columbus, OH.Poster presenter at the 2023 Grad Cohort Workshop for Women (CRA-WP) in San Francisco, CA.
PhD Forum Talk: An Adaptive Autonomous Aerial System for Dynamic Field Animal Ecology Studies
Talk at 5th IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems - ACSOS 2024. [Slides]Autonomous Drones for Collective Wildlife Behavior
Invited lecture for WildDrone Seminar Series (Virtual). [Slides]Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure for Remote Sensing with Autonomous Aerial Robotics: Applications in Animal Ecology and Digital Agriculture
Poster presenter at Translational Data Analytics Interdisciplinary Research Fall Forum 2023 in Columbus, OH.Charting the Future of Harnessing Data Revolution (HDR) Ecosystem: Crafting a Collaborative Research Agenda
Session presenter at the 2023 NSF HDR Ecosystem Conference in Denver, CO.Interdisciplinary Applications of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (AUAVs): A Case Study for Capturing the Behavior of Kenyan Wildlife
Poster presenter at the 2023 STARS Celebration, co-located with Tapia Conference in Dallas, TX.Interdisciplinary Applications for Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Speaker at the Ohio Celebration of Women in Computing 2023 in Huron, OH.PhD Forum Talk: Edge Computing for Software-Defined Cartography
Talk at ACM/IEEE Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC 2022) in Seattle, WA.Teaching
Data Management in the Cloud (CSE 3244)
Teaching Assistant, Autumn 2022Lecture topics include systematic organization of data on cloud computing architectures, basic indexing techniques, including B-tree and hash-based indexing, fundamentals of query optimization, including access path selection and cardinality estimation, full and partial replication and data partitioning and distributed task scheduling.
Modeling and Problem Solving with Spreadsheets and Databases (CSE 2111)
Lab Instructor, Autumn 2021 & Spring 2022Lecture topics include systematic organization of data on cloud computing architectures, basic indexing techniques, including B-tree and hash-based indexing, fundamentals of query optimization, including access path selection and cardinality estimation, full and partial replication and data partitioning and distributed task scheduling.
News
Summer fieldwork at The Wilds featured by Imageomics Research Institute(Jul 2025)
Spent the summer conducting fieldwork at The Wilds in Cumberland, OH, testing autonomous drones for wildlife monitoring and data collection. [Read more].
Drone Research Featured in Ohio State News (Apr 2025)
Ohio State News featured my research on autonomous drones for animal ecology, highlighting the potential impact of this technology on ecological research and conservation efforts. [Read more]
Graduate Student Research Award (Apr 2025)
Research recognized with the Department of Computer Science Graduate Student Research Award, given in recognition of exceptional research contributions.
2025 Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum Engineering Oral Presentation First Place (Feb 2025)
Awarded first place for the Engineering Oral Presentation at the 2025 Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum for the presentation "Autonomous, Adaptive Vision-Based Remote Sensing System for Dynamic Field Animal Ecology Studies". [Slides]Fieldwork at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya with WildDrone (Jan 2025)
Travelled to Kenya with the WildDrone team to test autonomous drones for wildlife monitoring at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
Successfully Passed PhD Candidacy Exam (Nov 2024)
Thesis proposal on "Autonomous, Adaptive Vision-Based In-Situ Remote Sensing System for Field Animal Ecology Studies" was approved by the committee, as first Imageomics institute PhD candidate.
Ph.D. Student Jenna Kline's Drone Research Accepted at Top Autonomous Systems Conference (Sep 2024)
Collaboration with Dr. Danilo Pianini's research group at the University of Bologna on multi-drone coordination for wildlife video acquisition using the Alchemist Simulator was accepted at ACSOS 2024.A 'Swarm' of Solutions: Drone Research Takes Wildlife Conservation to New Heights (Sep 2024)
Collaboration with WildDroneEU on drone swarms for animal monitoring was accepted at IMAV 2024.Summer research project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) accepted to SC23. (Sep 2023)
Summer internship research project with the LANL Supercomputer Institute Summer School, titled "Seeing the trees for the forest: Describing HPC Filesystem Trees with the Grand Unified File-Index (GUFI)", presented at the SC23 Graduate Posters ACM Student Research Competition.Imageomics Embarks on Kenya Research Experience (Jan 2023)
Drone pilot conducting field work in Kenya at the Mpala Research Center to collect data for the KABR dataset.CV
My CV is available here. For a full list of my publications, please refer to my Google Scholar.