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Short Term Scientific Mission 2025
Host institute and country: Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC), University of Porto
Host team: Pedro Moura and Filipe Santos, The Laboratory of Robotics and Internet-of-Things for Smart Precision Agriculture and Forestry (TRIBE)
Time of visit: 15 – 21 July 2025
In July 2025, I had the pleasure of joining the TRIBE lab at INESC TEC in Porto, Portugal, to carry out my STSM. The aim of this STSM was to examine how insect-focused AI-assisted technologies within agroecosystems could be upscaled to monitor risks to biodiversity, ecosystems, and human health.
My collaboration with TRIBE began when Pedro Moura posted on InsectAI’s Slack channel. It was immediately clear that our expertise could complement each other’s work. My research investigates how environmental changes impact biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. A major challenge in this field is the lack of fine-scale data – particularly on interactions between pollinators, pest control agents, disease-carrying species, and their abiotic and biotic environments. I was keen to explore how technological innovations might help fill these gaps.
TRIBE’s lab, led by Filipe, focuses on developing robotics for smart precision agriculture. They have recently developed Moxoh, an autonomous insect-monitoring system. Pedro, Filipe, and the TRIBE team are working to deploy Moxoh at scale, which presented an exciting opportunity to generate ecological data that could significantly advance my research and the field in general.
During the STSM, in collaboration with Filipe, Pedro, Isabel Pinheiro and Francisco Terra, I organised a series of three workshops, spread across five days. These sessions brought together a vibrant mix of researchers, engineers, and industry partners to explore how insect-focused AI-assisted technologies could be leveraged for one health (biodiversity, the environment, and people) monitoring.
The first 2-day workshop bought together myself and 27 members of TRIBE. Pedro and I presented our respective research, highlighting the complementary nature of our expertise. I also had the opportunity to tour TRIBE’s lab and learn about their impressive robotics developed for smart precision agriculture. In the remainder of the workshop, we adopted a Design Thinking approach, which – besides being extremely fun – enabled us to think creatively and collaboratively. Together, we generated over 50 innovative ideas for how insect-focused AI-assisted technologies could be developed to provide valuable ecological data.
In the second workshop, we welcomed 36 participants, including researchers from INESC TEC, engineers from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, representatives from the National Institute for Agriculture and Veterinary Research (INIAV), and industry partners from FitoSistema. We used this session for the final stage of the Design Thinking approach – validation. We explored how the ideas generated in the first workshop could be integrated into the Moxoh system and deployed at scale across northern Portugal.
The final part of the STSM, the last 2-day workshop, was dedicated to consolidating the ideas generated and notes taken during the STSM, beginning to draft our perspective paper based on our discussions, and mapping out future collaborative activities. Part of these discussions took place outdoors, with TRIBE kindly taking me to visit the University of Porto’s Vairão Agricultural Campus, where I had the chance to learn more about the university’s ongoing agricultural research.
Overall, it was a true pleasure to work alongside such a smart, welcoming, and collaborative group. TRIBE’s strong rapport and team spirit made the experience especially rewarding. We’re hopeful this is just the start of a long-term collaboration – and we already have future grant proposals in the pipeline!
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