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Fortunately, wildlife rangers now have access to drones, which they increasingly use to monitor their animals. At the same time, AI technologies鈥攕uch as automated recognition of animals in video footage鈥攁re advancing rapidly.

But according to Van Mulken, the vast amount of data generated by drones doesn鈥檛 make things easier. Efficiency and speed, he says, are key. 鈥淚 developed smart algorithms to quickly detect changes in animal behavior.鈥�

And that鈥檚 crucial to staying one step ahead of poachers, who trade horns, tusks, and hides of protected animals for large sums on the black market. Simply tracking a herd of rhinos isn鈥檛 enough, Van Mulken stresses. 鈥淚f you see a rhino running, the poacher is already close鈥攁nd the ranger is too late to intervene.鈥�

Zebras as bodyguards

Researchers at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) therefore  prey animals such as zebras and impalas as 鈥渂odyguards,鈥� Van Mulken explains. 鈥淎 nearby zebra herd reacts more quickly to approaching poachers and acts as an early warning system. The way such a group moves tells us a lot about its behavior.鈥�

WUR鈥檚 first AI model showed great promise, but the researchers wanted to strengthen their approach with new geometric models. Over the past four years, Van Mulken collaborated with them to optimize that model mathematically.

Using geometric group statistics, he first studied when a collection of animals qualifies as a group, and then how to automatically distinguish two groups in video images. 鈥淲e developed algorithms that can track the density function鈥攈ow closely animals are grouped together. Multiple studies have shown that you can predict group behavior from the density distribution of animals.鈥�

鈥淪itting still isn鈥檛 really my thing,鈥� says Van Mulken with a laugh, surrounded by moving boxes. Alongside his PhD research, he spent the past few years helping establish the 黑料福利网 PhD association Nexus and served as a member of the University Council (UR).

Despite all those extracurricular commitments, his dissertation was finished a month before his 黑料福利网 contract ended鈥攋ust in time for his move to Luxembourg. Since October 1, Van Mulken has been working there as a trainee at the European Commission. On Wednesday, October 29, he returned to defend his dissertation at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Life and motion are inseparable, he writes in the opening lines of his dissertation. That makes his PhD research a perfect fit for this all-rounder. 鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing how we can use computers and mathematics to address ecological challenges.鈥�

Illegal poaching

Until recently, wildlife rangers used GPS sensors to monitor endangered animals, Van Mulken explains.

鈥淭hat works well for small-scale, controlled studies. But because you can鈥檛 tag every animal in a group鈥攃atching and attaching sensors takes a lot of effort鈥攜ou only observe a fraction of the whole. That makes it hard to apply large-scale algorithms.鈥�

Partying festival crowds

As the African savanna isn鈥檛 exactly packed with supercomputers, running thousands of calculations per second isn鈥檛 feasible. Moving images make things even more complex, Van Mulken explains. 鈥淲e designed a new kinetic data structure that can intelligently determine when interesting things happen in the data and compute density only at those moments.鈥�

Initial studies show that his designs are highly successful鈥攁nd potentially widely applicable. 鈥淔rom zebra bodyguards to partying festival crowds.鈥�

For anyone picturing Van Mulken collecting data himself in the African savanna, he has to disappoint: 鈥淎s a theoretical mathematician, most of my work involves proving that the data structures and algorithms actually do what they鈥檙e supposed to do.鈥� Smiling, he adds, 鈥淭hat mostly involves a lot of ceiling-staring.鈥�

鈥淎 computer doesn鈥檛 have human intuition. We might think it鈥檚 obvious鈥攆or instance, that a drone should fly upward in a spiral over an area to locate a group of animals as efficiently as possible. But proving that intuition mathematically is a huge challenge. I find those kinds of puzzles fascinating鈥攍ogic is beautiful.鈥� He grins: 鈥淚 did get to see rhinos and elephants, though鈥攐n safari during my vacation a few years ago.鈥�

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