2021 Responsible Machine Learning Summit: AI anD Social Good
Fei Fang, Assistant Professor, Institute for Software Research, Carnegie Mellon University
Leveraging Machine Learning and Game Theory for Wildlife Conservation
Abstract: Environmental sustainability is a major challenge faced by society. For example, we rely on rangers to fight against poaching in the front line to stop the population drop of key species like tigers, elephants, and rhinos. However, the ranger resources are very limited. In this talk, I will introduce our work on leveraging machine learning and game theory for wildlife conservation. We built algorithms to learn from historical data collected during patrols and geospatial information to predict the poaching threat level at different locations within a conservation area. We also developed game-theoretic models to compute patrol strategies for rangers to combat poaching. Our work has led to the deployment of PAWS (Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security) in multiple conservation areas around the world. Building upon PAWS, we developed models and algorithms to handle new challenges that arise from the in-depth collaboration with wildlife conservation agencies, including understanding the role of informants, designing patrols adaptive to real-time information, coordinating rangers and conservation drones to detect and deter poachers.
Biosketch: Fei Fang is an assistant professor at the Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining CMU, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS) at Harvard University, advised by David Parkes and Barbara Grosz. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California in June 2016, advised by Milind Tambe. She received her bachelor degree from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University in July 2011.
Her research lies in the field of artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems, focusing on computational game theory with applications to security and sustainability domains. Her dissertation was selected as the runner-up for the IFAAMAS-16 Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award. Her work has won the Innovative Application Award at Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI’16), the Outstanding Paper Award in Computational Sustainability Track at the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI’15). Her work on “Protecting Moving Targets with Mobile Resources” has been deployed by the US Coast Guard for protecting the Staten Island Ferry in New York City since April 2013. Her work on designing patrol strategies to combat illegal poaching has lead to the deployment of PAWS application in a conservation area in Southeast Asia for protecting tigers.