Collaborating on a project at a large commercial fish farm.
SRA Information Technology had the opportunity to partner with the University of Melbourne through its Industry Projects Program on the development of an AI-powered computer vision system for a large commercial fish farm. The project challenged students to apply machine learning, embedded systems and software engineering skills to a genuine industry problem involving real-time fish detection and counting under highly challenging environmental conditions, including water glare, changing light and rapid fish movement.
Working alongside our team, the students developed and integrated computer vision models on AI-embedded hardware, explored approaches to data capture and model optimisation, and contributed to the software architecture supporting real-world deployment. The project provided valuable exposure to the practical challenges of taking AI beyond the laboratory and into an operational environment where performance, reliability and hardware constraints all matter.
The broader significance of the project extends well beyond the technical challenge. Accurate fish counting and biomass estimation have the potential to transform aquaculture operations by giving producers greater confidence in stock numbers, improving production planning and feeding strategies, supporting sustainable stocking densities, and providing more reliable data for business planning and finance. Solving these problems using embedded AI and computer vision represents an important step towards the digital transformation of the aquaculture industry.
The collaboration was an excellent experience for SRA. The students demonstrated strong technical capability, professionalism and a willingness to tackle complex problems. We were impressed by the quality of their work, their enthusiasm for learning and their ability to contribute to a genuinely innovative project.
Programs such as this create real value for both industry and students by allowing emerging engineers and data scientists to work on authentic commercial challenges with tangible outcomes. We would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Melbourne on future projects.
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