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We’re a small team of dedicated and committed individuals.  Below are short summaries of who we are and how we’re involved in WISDAM. Click on our Linkedin profiles to get in touch.

Amanda Hodgson

Amanda Hodgson

Leading the development of WISDAM

Dr Amanda Hodgson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research (CMER), Edith Cowan University. Her research interests include population assessments through aerial surveys and developing methods and tools for using drones / aerial imagery to survey marine megafauna. She has also spent much of her career researching dugongs and has conducted research on animal behaviour and their responses to human influences.

Martin Wieser

Martin Wieser

Lead Software Developer

Martin Wieser is a researcher and developer in the area of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing with more than 10 years of experience. His is also intereseted in providing tools, workflows and hardware for different science fields like archeology and ecological monitoring to make technolgies better accesable and lower technological barriers. Martin is currently working on his PhD at the Photogrammetry Research Institut at TU Wien.

Christophe Cleguer

Christophe Cleguer

Co-developer

Dr Christophe Cleguer leads the Marine Megafauna Research Group at the Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER) at James Cook University, Australia. His research interests include marine mammal population assessments, spatial ecology, and conservation. Currently, his work mainly focuses on assessing dugong (Dugong dugon) populations and their spatial ecology, primarily in Australian waters. Chris has been actively involved in both the initial and ongoing development of WISDAM, contributing valuable insights from his extensive field experience. He frequently conducts fieldwork using various aerial imagery platforms, providing essential real-world feedback to refine and enhance WISDAM.

I am both proud and humbled to have been part of the development team for WISDAM. As a dugong researcher collaborating with industry partners, scientists, local rangers, and NGOs across the globe, I have seen firsthand how invaluable WISDAM will be for surveyors of all educational backgrounds, environmental interests, and cultural perspectives.

Nat Kelly

Nat Kelly

Statistician

Dr Nat Kelly is a statistician with the Australian Antarctic Division, lutruwita (Tasmania), Australia. Specialising in survey designs and analysis methods for deriving wildlife abundance, their work has spanned animal populations from tropical regions to the Antarctic. Dr Kelly has worked with the WISDAM team for several years and is particularly interested in developing statistical approaches for deriving robust estimates of marine mammal abundance and distribution from aerial imagery surveys.

Frederic Maire

Frederic Maire

Lead AI Developer

Dr Frederic Maire is a part-time senior lecturer in the School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics at the Queensland University of Technology. His research interests are in machine learning, computer vision and robotics, and he has led the development of our Marine Animal Detector AI model. He considers himself an ‘aquademic’ as he is also participates in competative free diving.