Jenna M.Kline
Edge AI–driven autonomous environmental sensing. Designing multimodal observation systems for expert-on-the-loop monitoring at the far edge.
FIG.01 — PhD, COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
My research develops autonomous, distributed AI-driven sensing systems that combine edge computing, computer vision, and robotics.
I recently earned my PhD in Computer Science & Engineering at The Ohio State University, advised by Christopher Stewart and Tanya Berger-Wolf. Next, I join MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering as a postdoc with Dr. Heidi Nepf, using drones and computer vision for coastal resilience monitoring — with the MIT Climate Project.
I focus on enabling real-time, adaptive environmental monitoring by pushing decision-making to the edge. This allows systems to autonomously adjust their sensing strategies to capture dynamic phenomena and to assist expert decision-making without constant human intervention. My goal is to improve ecological research and conservation at scale.
Selected work
Peer-reviewed · full list on Google Scholar →
Edge-Native, Behavior-Adaptive Drone System for Wildlife Monitoring
Studying collective animal behaviour with drones and computer vision
Talks & presentations
FAIR² Drones: An AI-Ready Standard for Cross-Domain Wildlife Drone Datasets
Autonomous Drones for Animal Studies with Edge AI
Autonomous AI-Driven Environmental Sensing Systems
How do drones fit into multimodal sensing networks?
Drones and AI in Field Animal Ecology
From Ohio to Kenya: Autonomous Drones in Field Ecology & Conservation
Individual Identification of Zebras with Autonomous UAV Swarms
Autonomous Drones for Collective Wildlife Behavior
PhD Forum: An Adaptive Autonomous Aerial System for Dynamic Field Animal Ecology
Intelligent Cyberinfrastructure for Remote Sensing with Autonomous Aerial Robotics
Interdisciplinary Applications of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
PhD Forum: Edge Computing for Software-Defined Cartography
Projects
Open-source tools, works in review, and personal side projects.
Project Management Tool for Research
A lightweight tracker for coordinating multi-student, multi-site field research.
In the classroom
Data Management in the Cloud
Systematic organization of data on cloud architectures, B-tree and hash-based indexing, query optimization and cardinality estimation, replication, data partitioning, and distributed task scheduling.
Modeling & Problem Solving with Spreadsheets and Databases
Hands-on lab instruction in data modeling, spreadsheet analysis, and relational database fundamentals for problem solving.
News
Starting my postdoc at MIT
Joining Dr. Heidi Nepf's group in MIT Civil & Environmental Engineering, working on drones and computer vision for coastal monitoring — with the MIT Climate Project.
Successfully defended my PhD dissertation
“Autonomous Drone Systems for In Situ Animal Ecology.” Grateful to advisors, committee, and labmates — and excited to join MIT as a postdoc.
2025 Robert May Prize
Awarded for best paper in Methods in Ecology & Evolution by an early-career author.
Organized WILDLABS Edge Computing Group's first in-person meeting
Ahead of the International Conservation Technology Conference (ICTC) in Lima, Peru.
ACM/IEEE SEC 2025 — 1st Place Student Research Competition
For “An Edge-Native Approach to Behavior-Adaptive Navigation in Drone Systems.”
2025–2026 Presidential Fellowship
Ohio State's most prestigious graduate award, recognizing outstanding scholarly accomplishment entering the final phase of dissertation research.
Alumni Grant for Graduate Research & Scholarship (AGGRS)
One of two engineering graduate students awarded the AGGRS for dissertation research. Featured in Imageomics news.
Selected for MIT Rising Stars in EECS
A program supporting women pursuing academic careers in EECS, with mentorship and career development.
WildDrone Summer School · Max Planck Institute, Konstanz
Presented “How do drones fit into multimodal sensing networks?” Also joined the AI+Environment Summit at ETH Zurich.
Summer fieldwork at The Wilds, featured by Imageomics
Led a team of students conducting fieldwork and collecting data at The Wilds in Cumberland, OH.
Selected for WiscProf: Future Faculty in Engineering
A four-day program at UW–Madison for senior PhD students and postdocs pursuing academic careers in engineering.
Drone research featured in Ohio State News
Coverage of my autonomous drones for animal ecology and their potential impact on conservation research.
CSE Graduate Student Research Award
Recognizing exceptional research contributions in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering.
Hayes Advanced Research Forum — Engineering Oral, 1st Place
For “Autonomous, Adaptive Vision-Based Remote Sensing System for Dynamic Field Animal Ecology Studies.”
Fieldwork at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya
Tested autonomous drones for wildlife monitoring with the WildDrone team at Ol Pejeta.
Passed PhD candidacy exam
Approved as the first Imageomics Institute PhD candidate.
Drone pilot for the KABR dataset in Kenya
Fieldwork at Mpala Research Center collecting data for the KABR wildlife behavior dataset.
Let's build the
next smart system.
kline.377 [at] osu.edu