Reporting on the progress of the Vector AI sub- group

Tirana, Albania Annual meeting 9th May 2025
By Kelly Martinou

Vector borne diseases are an emerging or re-emerging threat all over Europe and arthropod vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks are on the rise due to multiple anthropogenic pressures including climate change. VectorAI was created during our meeting in Cyprus as there was a lot of interest from InsectAIers to address the  particular societal needs related to vectors, AI and computer vision technologies for vector monitoring and identification.

Prior to the meeting in Albania the VectorAI subgroup had several online meetings, exploring, discussing ideas and developing software using computer vision for mosquito identification.

Following from the meeting at Tirana we are currently working on developing technologies for mosquito automated identification, while several manuscripts are being in prep.

Future plans:hopefully include an in-person meeting where the multidisciplinary team of entomologists and computer scientists of VectorAI will meet to discuss progress so far and finalise manuscripts. We are also hoping to identify a suitable venue/conference to present the first results from our group work and 1st STSM

We were delighted that our colleagues from the Institute of Public Health in Albania

Dr Kella Dikolli, Head of the Unit and Dr Perparim Kadriaj, Veterinarian, were able to join our Vector, AI session  at a short notice. Since they joined us in Albania, they have been actively involved in the preparation of manuscripts and projects