Research team
Liz Ferguson and Peter Sugarman are longtime collaborators in the field of underwater bioacoustics and marine mammal whistle detection and classification.
Peter Sugarman
Founder and Independent Researcher, Acoustic Interactions
For more than 50 years, Peter has pursued a deep passion to establish two-way communication with dolphins. This has included many years of dolphin research, study, and technology development, and many hours spent with dolphins. In this collaborative project informed by multiple disciplines, He is joined by a team of equally passionate colleagues, friends, and social innovators from my wide array of lifelong connections.
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Peter brings a unique set of skills to achieve this: experience in marine behavioral ecology and animal behavior; computer science, artificial intelligence and software development; experimental cognitive psychology; integral ecology, and underwater acoustics.
My early career experience includes training in underwater acoustics as a sonar technician with the US Navy (1971). In 1980, I worked with the Human/Dolphin Foundation at Marine World/Africa USA in Redwood City, CA on the JANUS project in their attempt to communicate with two captive adolescent dolphins. In the mid 80’s, I produced a field guide to the Orca Whales of Puget Sound, working with the Whale Museum, Friday Harbor, WA.
In the early 90s I led several test teams through successful software application development projects at Microsoft. While I retired from Microsoft in 1998 to continue pursuing my passion for dolphin communication research, my expertise in developing and testing processes remains a foundational skill enabling me to develop and direct the creation of a two-way acoustic protocol for talking with dolphins. After my time at Microsoft, I was the first research coordinator at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys (2000), working on marine mammal research.
My education includes three master’s degrees: in marine behavioral ecology, from Florida State University, (1977); computer science, from Western Washington University, (1988), and in experimental cognitive psychology, from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) in 2010. At USM I designed a project to assess a dolphin’s acoustic discrimination and cognitive abilities, working with two adult dolphins at Dolphin Encounters in Nassau, Bahamas. Though highly trained to follow human directions, the 30-year-old dolphins (near the end of an average dolphin’s lifespan) were past their critical period of learning plasticity and failed to learn the new discrimination task. From this I determined that working with young dolphins in the wild may hold the key for establishing a two-way inter-species communication link.
Liz Ferguson
Founder and CEO, Ocean Science Analytics
LIz Ferguson, Founder and CEO of Ocean Science Analytics (OSA) is currently working on the development of methods for real-time dolphin whistle detection and display. This project, the “Dolphin Whistle Detection and Vocalization Display,” is being led by Dr. Heidi Lyn, University of South Alabama, and Peter Sugarman. It aims to better understand the whistle repertoire of a group of dolphins located at the Ocean Adventures facility in Gulfport, Mississippi. OSA’s role in this project relates to the software components used in detecting and displaying whistles.
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For the “Dolphin Whistle Detection and Vocalization Display” project, Liz is using DeepAcoustics, an open-access MATLAB-based software program designed to develop and deploy deep learning networks for bio-acoustic data. This tool, touting an intuitive graphical user interface, was modified from the tool DeepSqueak, which was originally developed to detect and classify ultrasonic vocalizations from rodents in a low noise, laboratory setting. DeepAcoustics is used to create and evaluate deep neural networks for whistle detection in a variety of underwater environments. The native classification features of DeepAcoustics are used to categorize detected whistles.
Liz is a Marine Ecologist and Educator with 20 years of experience in the education and research communities of San Diego. Throughout much of her career, she has specialized in marine mammal bioacoustic research, with expertise in passive acoustic monitoring, deep learning methods for call detection, and development of analytical software. More recently, she has focused on studying natural and anthropogenic physical-biological impacts on marine megafauna population dynamics using tools such as ArcGIS/QGIS and R. Liz is adept at combining her technical expertise with effective communication of complex topics through outreach and educational materials.
Prior to founding OSA, Liz worked at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (NOAA Fisheries) as a passive and active acoustic technician. In this role, she gained extensive field experience in the Gulf of Mexico, the Eastern Tropical Pacific, and the Pacific Northwest regions. Liz later worked for Bio-Waves Inc., as their Chief Operating Officer (COO), with additional responsibilities in data analytics and project management.
Liz is a graduate of the University of San Diego with a B.A. in Marine Science, and Point Loma Nazarene University with an M.S. in Biology. Liz also possesses a Specialist Certificate in GIS. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Biology Departments at Miramar College, California State University San Marcos, and the University of San Diego. She also serves as the Executive Director of Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) of San Diego, a non-profit supporting young women in their pursuit of STEM careers.
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If you’d have specific questions about our work with DeepAcoustics, are looking for a speaker on this subject, or want to explore an opportunity to collaborate, please connect with us here.