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PhD Candidate  ·  University of Pisa  ·  Italy

Olatoye
Dolapo Salim

Computer Vision for Marine Ecology

Leveraging AI and emerging imaging technologies to decode biodiversity stability in complex marine environments. Part of the EU Horizon BioEcoOcean project, funded by the University of Pisa.

Olatoye Dolapo Salim
loc Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
inst Dept. of Biology, UniPi
field CV · Marine Ecology
Olatoye Dolapo Salim
loc Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
inst Dipartimento di Biologia, UniPi
field Computer Vision · Marine Ecology
About

Marine Biologist
& AI Researcher

I am a PhD candidate at the University of Pisa's Department of Biology, working at the intersection of marine ecology and machine intelligence. My research centres on applying AI and emerging imaging technologies, particularly computer vision and deep learning to evaluate biodiversity stability in complex marine environments.

My work spans the full pipeline: from collecting and annotating underwater imagery, training object detection and classification models, to integrating outputs with ecological data for biodiversity assessment. I believe scalable, automated vision systems are key to monitoring ocean health at the speed the climate crisis demands.

I hold an MSc in Coastal & Marine Biology and Ecology from Università del Salento (Unisalento4Talents Scholar) and a BSc in Fisheries and Aquaculture from Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria, graduating as best student of my department. My PhD is funded by the BioEcoOcean EU Horizon project.

3+
Publications
3
EU Projects
110
MSc Grade /110
3
Countries
Academic Awards
Best Graduating Student — Dept. of Fisheries & Aquaculture, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, 2019
Unisalento4Talents Scholarship — Università del Salento, MSc 2021–2023
Affiliations
University of Pisa
BioEcoOcean · EU Horizon
BioBoost+
AMBULANT
Computer Vision in Action

Automated Species
Detection & Tracking

This demo shows a real-time YOLO-based object detection and tracking pipeline applied to underwater video footage. Each species is automatically identified, labelled, and assigned a persistent tracking ID across frames.

Part of ongoing work under BioBoost+ EU project contributing to scalable, AI-driven biodiversity monitoring by eliminating the need for manual video annotation.

YOLOv8Object Tracking Species DetectionPython OpenCVBioBoost+
Live Demo — Species Detection
Education

Academic Journey

From Nigeria to Italy — building the interdisciplinary foundation for AI-driven marine science.

2023 – Present
Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences
University of Pisa, Italy
Understanding biodiversity stability in complex marine environments using emerging sensing technologies. Funded by BioEcoOcean (EU Horizon).
2021 – 2023
MSc in Coastal & Marine Biology and Ecology
Università del Salento, Italy
Grade: 110/110 · Awarded the Unisalento4Talents Scholarship.
2015 – 2019
BSc in Fisheries and Aquaculture
Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria
Best Graduating Student — Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, 2018/2019.
Publications

Research Output

Peer-reviewed articles and conference contributions, newest first.

2026
Research Article · Ecological Indicators
Invertebrates' Metabolic Responses to Climate Warming Scenarios in the Adriatic Sea
Shokri M., Lezzi L., Ciotti M., Vignes F., Taban P., Marrocco V., Alabi V., Olatoye D., Muresan A.N., Forni P., Semeraro T., Fano E.A., & Basset A.
Ecological Indicators, 183, 114622
DOI 10.1016/j.ecolind.2026.114622 ↗
2024
Poster · BEING SEA-EU / AMBULANT
Automated Benthic Detection and Identification System of Key Marine Features through Machine Learning, Machine Vision Prototypes and Artificial Neural Networks
Boujmil I., Karovic S., Zama F., Olatoye D.S., Klenczner T.A., Siciliano A., Dimech S., Sitilo N., Sacco O., Pierucci M., Deguara D., Scerri D., Theuma L., Paolacci S.
AquaBioTech Group & Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology
2020
Research Article · Applied Tropical Agriculture
Studies on Lateralization and Aggression in Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) Using the Mirror, Dyadic and Predator Inspection Tests
Ariyomo T.O., Olatoye D.S. & Jegede T.
Applied Tropical Agriculture, 25(2), pp. 68–74
Full list on ResearchGate ↗
Projects

Code & Repositories

Tools, pipelines, and experiments in computer vision and marine data science.

View all on GitHub ↗
Skills

Technical Expertise

A cross-disciplinary stack spanning AI engineering and field marine science.

Programming & Data
PythonRJavaScriptBash
Computer Vision & AI
YOLOPyTorchTensorFlowOpenCVCNNsViTObject DetectionSegmentationClaude AI
Tools & Platforms
RoboflowStreamlitGit / GitHubDockerHPC / ClusterCVATLabel Studio
Remote Sensing & GIS
Satellite ImageryQGISGoogle Earth EngineHyperspectralCoastal Monitoring
Marine Science
Marine EcologyBiodiversity AssessmentBenthic EcologyFisheriesEcosystem ModellingClimate Impact
Data Science
Statistical AnalysisData VisualisationMultivariate AnalysisPandasNumPyJupyter
News & Updates

Latest

Research milestones, project updates, and field dispatches.

Contact

Get in Touch

Available for academic collaborations, consulting, speaking, and research inquiries, especially at the intersection of computer vision, marine science, and biodiversity monitoring.