coPIs: Cabell S. Davis (WHOI) , Jerome H. Milgram (MIT), and George Barbastathis (MIT)

Our MIT Sea Grant focused research project together with funds from other agencies, are being used to assemble a team of experts in plankton and micronekton/nekton biology, video plankton imaging and image analysis, digital holographic imaging (DHI), volume holographic imaging (VHI), range-gated laser imaging (RGLI), adaptive optics (AO), in-situ DNA analysis, and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology.  The primary goal of this research team is to develop a modular multi-scale imaging system and incorporate it into an AUV for autonomous quantification of distributional patterns of plankton, micronekton, and nekton species.  The completed system will provide data directly to a broad base of scientists for use in variety of studies including environmental quality and fisheries assessment.

As part of this project the three lead PIs (Davis, Milgram, and Barbastathis) are developing pilot DHI and VHI systems for identification and quantification of plankton species.  A pilot DHI system has been built by graduate student Jose Dominguez-Caballero and initial tests images obtained.  This webpage describes the pilot DHI system.