News

Dr. Suresh Neethirajan was an invited speaker for the Cross-Species Emotion Workshop at the 2024 International Society for Research on Emotion at Queen's University Belfast. 

His talk, titled "Enhancing Animal Welfare through Artificial Intelligence - A Multimodal Approach to Assessing Emotional States in Farm Animals," explored some exciting innovations in understanding and improving the emotional dynamics of farm animals.

he discussed how multimodal sensing and big data, aided by artificial intelligence, can measure emotions in dairy cows, chickens, and pigs. he delved into what constitutes an emotion in farm animals—E-motion or energy in motion—and examined how sensor fusion and data analytics can unravel emotional intensity, valences, and create a deeper understanding of affective states.

He explored how the vocalizations of dairy cows and chickens can be decoded using Natural Language Processing, semantics, lexicons, and ontologies. The potential of new tools via Large Language Models and AI-based digital agents in advancing the field of farm animal emotions was also highlighted.

The advancements in the field of emotions, particularly with artificial social agents and robots, has set a high benchmark. However, in animal science, especially concerning farm animals, there is still have a long way to go in developing new insights, methods, and tools. Via collaborations, this gap can be bridged and significantly enhance animal welfare through innovative technologies.