Computers and dolphins don’t typically occupy the same space. However, Georgia Tech researchers and marine biologists from the Wild Dolphin Project have been swimming with the two for more than a decade.

The Wild Dolphin Project is the world’s longest-running underwater dolphin research project, and this week, the organization is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

Georgia Tech is marking the occasion with a fun and engaging video illustrating the interactive computing technology its researchers have created to help marine biologists studying dolphin behavior and communication in the open ocean.

Referred to as the “Jane Goodall of the sea” by National Geographic, Denise Herzing is the founder and research director of the Wild Dolphin Project. She and Georgia Tech College of Computing Professor Thad Starner began collaborating in 2011 on interactive technologies to aid the project’s study of a specific pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins.

The initial CHAT (cetacean hearing augmented telemetry) device developed by Starner’s Contextual Computing Group was a large chest-worn submersible computer that produced and recorded sounds underwater. Fast forward to today and CHAT is now two smaller units that fit on the chest and wrist.

CHAT works by having two marine biologists wear both units while swimming with the dolphins. The wrist device emits dolphin-like whistle sounds, while the chest device includes a hydrophone to detect and record sounds. The researchers made up the sounds to designate items they handle while in the water.

The Georgia Tech video features an animated example of marine biologists passing a red scarf back and forth while triggering the designated sound for the scarf.

“The hope is that the dolphins watching all of this can figure out the social context and repeat that sound to ask for the scarf,” said Scott Gilliland, CHAT developer and Georgia Tech senior research scientist.

“If that happens, it means that our dolphins can mimic one word in our tiny, made-up language.”

Gilliland and Starner continue to push CHAT forward to ensure the team captures this breakthrough when it happens. They are now collecting auditory field data to optimize their machine-learning model for identifying dolphin sounds in the open ocean.

Ultimately, they expect CHAT to recognize if a dolphin repeats one of the preset sounds in real-time. The advanced system will notify researchers in the water of this event through bone-conducting headphones paired with CHAT.

“Discoveries in dolphin cognition will serve to further elevate the status of all animals on the planet and help us define our relationship with them,” says Herzing, affiliate assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University. 

CHAT is an ongoing collaboration between Herzing and Starner’s Contextual Computing Group. The Wild Dolphin Project is a Florida-based nonprofit research organization.­­

ATLANTA (Feb. 23, 2024) — The Carter Center and Georgia Institute of Technology today commemorated the new joint Governance and Technology Fellowship.

The Center’s Democracy Program and Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology are supporting one fellowship during the spring 2024 academic semester for a doctoral candidate researching the intersection of technology and democratic governance.

“I am thrilled to visit Georgia Tech again and celebrate our strong partnership,” said Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander. “There is an important relationship between technology and democracy. Together, we are committed to promoting secure and transparent technologies that reinforce democratic principles.”

The fellow, Daniel Nkemelu, who is from Nigeria, is working closely with the Carter Center’s Democracy Program director, data scientist, and members of the digital threats to democracy initiative.

The fellowship builds on the institutions’ long collaboration, including with Michael Best, executive director of the Institute for People and Technology, who played an important role in establishing this fellowship.

“From social media platforms to computer-based voting machines, technologies today are profoundly impacting democracies across the globe,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “This new fellowship and our ongoing partnership with The Carter Center express a shared commitment to strong democracies supported by secure technologies.”

The fellowship began in January. It aims to advance the fellow’s research agenda and give access to experts in democratic elections and participatory democracy. The fellow will also connect the Carter Center’s Democracy Program with Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology research.

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Contact: In Atlanta, Maria Cartaya, maria.cartaya@cartercenter.org

The Carter Center
Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.

A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.

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About the Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its more than 47,000 undergraduate and graduate students, representing 50 states and more than 148 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in Europe and Asia, and through distance and online learning.

As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1.2 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.