Identifying birds with the aid of artificial intelligence

Edwin Ong and Liow Shang Yu, both 17 and in their second year, came up with an innovative Web application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify different birds.

To identify a bird, a user has to upload an image of it. The application will then suggest the likely species of the bird, the probable accuracy of the prediction, and a sample picture of what the app’s AI model thinks the bird looks like.

The user will then be able to learn more about the bird by choosing an option that redirects to the Singapore Birds Project website, which provides details such as a bird’s common behaviour.

The boys worked on this application from April last year to January as part of the Nanyang Research Pro- gramme, an annual outreach pro- gramme by Nanyang Technological University for students in their first year of junior college.

“We were hoping that we would be able to benefit bird watchers and, maybe, contribute more to conservation efforts because birdwatchers play a very vital role in conservation efforts,” said Shang Yu. Birdwatchers provide huge amounts of data to conservation researchers.

During the project, the students were helped and guided by Dr Kenneth YT Lim, 55, and his team.

“Over the past year, I’ve been very impressed with how proactive the pair was in looking after their own learning,” said Dr Lim, a senior re- search scientist at the National Institute of Education.

The boys faced many challenges throughout the process as they had little prior knowledge of artificial intelligence and Web programming.

“The maths was university level, and, with our busy schedules, it was difficult to allocate time for us to learn the fundamentals of artificial intelligence,” said Edwin.