The Ocean and Sciences Meeting in San Diego is the premier research conference for the ocean sciences and ocean-connected community. The conference brings together scientists from around the world to discuss all aspects of oceanography, providing a valuable opportunity for the community to exchange ideas, information, and new research affecting the field.

Kitware is proud to have two papers included in the conference. Each paper centers around Video and Imagery Analysis for the Marine Environment (VIAME), an open source software toolkit Kitware developed in partnership with the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service through its Automated Imagery Analysis Strategic Initiative. VIAME uses artificial intelligence (AI) to enable fisheries biologists and other marine scientists at NOAA and laboratories around the world to automatically analyze large volumes of imagery and video for scientific studies, such as estimating the population of fish species in a fishery.

The requirements, capabilities, and development of VIAME were funded and overseen by the AIASI Steering Committee, which included members from each of the six NMFS Science Centers as well as Dr. Anthony Hoogs from Kitware.

VIAME has gained notable recognition, including a Gold Medal Award for Scientific or Technical Achievement from the Department of Commerce. This is the most prestigious honor given by the Department of Commerce each year.

Below is more detailed information about each paper presentation:


An Open-Source System for Do-It-Yourself AI in the Marine Environment

Presented by:Kitware’s Senior Director of Computer Vision, Dr. Anthony Hoogs

Date and Time: Thursday, February 20 at 4 p.m. PT

Authors: Anthony Hoogs, Matthew Dawkins, Benjamin Richards (NOAA), George Cutter (NOAA), Deborah Hart (NOAA), M. Elizabeth Clarke (NOAA), William Michaels (NOAA), Jon Crall, Linus Sherrill, Neil Siekierski, Matthew Woehlke, Kyle Edwards


Moving Towards Machine Learning for the Analysis of Deep-Sea Imagery Collected by Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Presented by: Abigail Powell of NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center

Date and Time: Thursday, February 20 at 9:30 a.m. PT

Authors: Abigail Powell (NOAA), M. Elizabeth Clarke (NOAA), Matthew Dawkins, Benjamin Richards (NOAA), Anthony Hoogs


To learn more about Kitware’s computer vision work, or to schedule meetings with Anthony Hoogs and Matt Dawkins at the event, please reach out to computervision@kitware.com. We look forward to engaging with this community and sharing information about Kitware’s ongoing research and capability development in computer vision and deep learning, as well as our cutting-edge open source software.

Physical Event

San Diego Convention Center
111 W Harbor Dr