Owen Okuley
Owen Okuley is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Oregon State University who aims to graduate with a B.S. in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences in the spring of 2025, and holds an A.A.O.T from Portland Community College. He currently leads a research effort using artificial intelligence in wildlife identification, primarily to classify desert bighorn in images from water sources.
Since joining the lab in the winter of 2023, Owen has undertaken a wide variety of tasks, including manual photo classification, fieldwork in Twentynine Palms, CA during the summer of 2023, and developing and leading his ongoing research which he presented at the ORTWS conference 2024. He aims to continue this work over the coming year with the hope to publish his first two papers by the time of his graduation. While his primary focus is large terrestrial mammals, he is open and willing to participate in any field of study related to wildlife or fisheries, and is eager to engage in diverse conservation efforts. Longer-term, he aspires to work in conservation education while continuing to build on his project development and leadership skills. While having discovered a love for the desert through first-hand experience and months of staring at the sand, one of his current goals is to expand his experience to other ecosystems and species for a more holistic perspective of the natural world. |