From Fishponds to Artificial Intelligence HOW UAPB IS PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF BLACK INNOVATORS BY UAPB STAFF
UAPB President, Dr. Anthony Graham
There, faculty and students are bringing together artificial intelligence, computer vision and decades of fisheries expertise to explore how emerging technology can help solve real-world problems. For students, it also means opportunities to work alongside experienced researchers and gain hands-on experience with technologies that are increasingly shaping the workforce. The work reflects a broader direction taking shape at UAPB. As Arkansas’ only public 1890 land-grant HBCU, the university is building on longstanding strengths in agriculture, aquaculture, At the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, some of the most forward-looking work in artificial intelligence is taking place in a setting that might seem unexpected: an aquaculture research facility.
research and service while creating new opportunities for students in artificial intelligence, data science and other growing fields.
$10 billion in economic losses globally each year. Because infected shrimp can die before visible symptoms appear, producers often do not recognize the problem until significant losses have already occurred. "We want to help producers make better decisions sooner," Dr. Ramena said."If we can detect these changes before the disease becomes visible, we can reduce losses, improve productivity, and ultimately strengthen the sustainability of aquaculture." The platform builds on years of research in aquaculture health, nutrition and advanced production systems. Ramena’s team has developed noninvasive precision tools to assess growth, health and production characteristics across aquatic species. Aquavision is now in the prototype phase and moving toward commercialization. The potential of Aquavision, however, goes beyond disease detection. The broader vision is to use AI to answer practical and scientific questions by
One project brings those pieces together particularly well.
WHERE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MEETS AQUACULTURE At the center of the work is UAPB Aquavision, an AI-powered platform being developed through the university’s Aquaculture/Fisheries Center of Excellence. Dr. Yathish Ramena, director of the Center, leads the research. His 35-year career has taken him from India's aquaculture industry to collaborations with some of the world's largest shrimp producers. At UAPB, he and his team are applying that experience to some of the most persistent challenges facing aquaculture. Aquavision combines computer vision and machine learning to identify microscopic size variations in shrimp that are invisible to the human eye but may signal the onset of Early Mortality Syndrome, or EMS, one of the shrimp industry's most devastating diseases. EMS is responsible for an estimated
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