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First session in 2025
AI for ecologists: a toolkit
This five-day training course, organized by the FRB-CESAB aims to initiate ecologists to AI concepts and tools.
The Cesab – Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity – of the FRB is offering the training course «Artifical Intelligence for ecologists: a toolkit». This five-day training course aims to initiate ecologists to AI concepts and tools. The course will be a mix of lectures and hands-on practice based on different data types commonly encountered in ecology. The main objective of the course is to give to the participants the autonomy that will allow them to assess which algorithms are most adapted to their own research questions, where to find them and how to adjust them to the desired question. The training course, in English, and takes place in spring at the CESAB in Montpellier. The price is 250 € for the week, including lunches. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants.
Find the training course on GitHub
You must have a strong programming background, at least in R.
Familiarity with Python is preferred, but not mandatory. In fact, to make sure that we all start on similar bases, we require that you follow these tutorials before attending the training course. We will not control whether you followed the tutorial, but trust that you will to collectively ensure the group has a common base to start from.
Learn more about the tutorial
Under the “Learn the basics”, please go through all the following pages:
- Hello, World!
- Variables and Types Lists
- Basic Operators
- String Formatting
- Basic String Operations
- Conditions
- Loops
- Functions
- Classes and Objects
- Dictionaries
- Modules and Packages
- Input and Output
Each section allows you to interact with a built-in Python console where you can copy/paste and edit the commands. The sections end with a small exercise, which we recommend you do. You may navigate from one section to the other by clicking on the “next tutorial” button (you don’t have to take the test – but are welcome to if you enjoy it).
List of speakers (in alphabetical order) :
- Léo BLONDEL (Founder of the alien.club)
- Camille COUX (FRB-CESAB)
- Romain FRELAT (FRB-CESAB)
- Dimitri JUSTEAU-ALLAIRE (IRD, AMAP)
- Maximillien SERVAJEAN (LIRMM)
- Paul TRESSON (IRD, AMAP)
- Benjamin BOUREL (INRIA, University of Montpellier, LIRMM, CNRS)
- Margot CHALLAND (Institut Agro Montpellier)
- Titouan LORIEUL (Institut Agro Montpellier)
2025 training session event:
PROGRAMME EXAMPLE
This is a programme example
INTRODUCTION
- Presentation of the course and speakers
- Introduction to AI: historical background
- Introduction to Python environment and tools
- Data science in Python
MACHINE LEARNING 1
- Linear and general regression : from a ML perspective
- Random forest and K-means
- Practical concepts and practice
MACHINE LEARNING 2
- Dataset selection
- Supervised learning
- Unsupervised learning
- Dimensionality reduction
DEEP LEARNING
- DL concepts
- Practices with PlantNet
SYMBOLIC AI
- Introduction
- Practice: Designing protected areas in New Caledonia
- Practice: Crop rotation planning
- Feedback time and conclusion
Citation
Blondel L, Bourel B, Challand M, Coux C, Justea-Allaire D, Frelat R, Servajean M, Tresson P. (2025) AI for ecologists: a toolkit for beginners. An FRB-CESAB training course. URL: https://ai-ecol.github.io/
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Sakina Ayata for comments and advice in the set-up of this training course, to Nicolas Casajus for constant conceptual and technical support. Thanks to Maija Miikkola for all the logistical and administrative help, and to Violette Silve for the visual support on the FRB website.