on Drones and Unmanned Systems (DAUS' 2025), which took place in Granada Spain between February 19th and 21st, 2025. This relatively intimate conference included 122 in-person attendees from 41 countries around the world, boasting a wide and eclectic range of expertise, ranging from emphases in robotics and mechatronics to practical applications in agriculture and wildlife monitoring.
Sean Hogan was honored to be an invited presenter by one of the conference sponsors, the North American based Wildlife Society, with whom IGIS has collaborated with in the past, and provided a talk on "Drone Data Management, Processing and Analysis." As part of the Wildlife Society's special session during the final day of the event, this very well-received presentation was accompanied some of the other highlights of the entire conference, including:
- A keynote presentation by Mr. Rick Spaulding (ManTech Advanced Systems International, USA) on The Use of Drones in Wildlife Ecology: Future Challenges and Opportunities.
- A riveting presentation on the History of The Use of Drones for Wildlife Research and Conservation, by Dr. David M. Bird (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
- A fascinating presentation on Evaluating the Use of Drones for Wildlife Studies: Opportunities and Challenges, which provided a scientifically supported survey of potential disturbance levels of various types of drones on various types of wildlife based upon proximity and angles, by Fred Tremblay (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
- A presentation titled, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles: Taking Cetacean Research to New Heights, interested in using cutting edge methods of monitoring and creating digital twins of whales using UAV, by Dr. Gina Lonati (University of New Brunswick Saint John, Canada
- A very novel presentation on Animal Classification and Detection via Hyperspectral Imagery and Uncrewed Aerial Systems, by Daniel McCraine (Research Engineer, Mississippi State University, USA)
- A presentation on Monitoring Large Non-breeding Aggregations: Using Drones to Enhance Avian Research in Dense and Urban Environments, by wildlife enthusiast, Craig Gibson (Boston, USA)
- A presentation on Designing Drones for Wildlife Radio Telemetry, by Dr. Michael Shafer (Northern Arizona University, USA)
- And last but not least, a presentation following the Wildlife Society's special session on The Impact of Blur on Remote Sensing Aspects of Environmental Monitoring Using Unmanned Ground Vehicles, which delved into the affects of distance and motion on image classifications applying a suite of computer vision and machine learning techniques, by Bas Van Drial (The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands)
It is exciting to note that UC ANR IGIS's applied work with drones is now reaching international notoriety, and it was an honor to have engaged with so many fascinating experts coming from differing backgrounds, who came together for this event.