ARIAM Seminar Series: From Pixels to Impact: Building Vision Systems for Agriculture, Ecology, and Human Wellbeing

Abstract:

Advancements in AI and computer vision are unlocking new possibilities for real-world sensing and decision-making. In this talk, Xun will share recent progress in developing deployable vision systems that translate pixel-level data into impactful outcomes across diverse domains.

In agriculture, the work in vineyard yield estimation and video phenomics explores how vision-based analytics can non-invasively assess plant traits and productivity. For ecological monitoring, Xun highlight efforts in seagrass habitat mapping to support blue carbon initiatives and robot-assisted insect collection that accelerates biodiversity digitisation. In the human wellbeing space, AI-driven systems for dental imaging analysis and video-based behavioural monitoring for suicide risk prevention are being built.

These projects demonstrate a common goal: designing modular, lightweight, and adaptive vision pipelines that work in complex, resource-limited, or sensitive environments. Xun will reflect on shared challenges and cross-sector learnings.

Bio:
Dr. Xun Li is the Team Leader of the Quantitative Imaging Team within CSIRO’s Imaging and Computer Vision (ICV) Research Group, part of the Data61 Business Unit. She is a passionate and impact-driven researcher specialising in applied computer vision, with a focus on solving real-world challenges across agriculture, ecology, and human wellbeing. From 2020 to 2022, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where she worked on pedestrian tracking and action recognition in multi-camera surveillance systems. Earlier in her career, Dr. Li joined CSIRO at the High Resolution Plant Phenomics Centre, where she developed automated vision pipelines for plant phenotyping. She holds a PhD from UNSW in Surveying and Geospatial Engineering (SNAP Lab), where her research focused on vision-based positioning and navigation systems using geo-referenced 3D maps.

In her career, Dr Li has received 2023 Winner of the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Award for Research and Development Project of the Year, and also received a Merit Award for Artificial Intelligence Project of the Year. She was named a 2023 Finalist in the Women in AI Awards Asia-Pacific.

Research interests: human behaviour analysis, digital agriculture, 3D scene understanding, and vision systems for environmental monitoring.