Abalone Press

Executive Director Edwin Solares’s research on AI-assisted sex determination in endangered red abalone is featured by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. The study developed deep learning models trained on thousands of ultrasound images to identify abalone sex non-invasively, achieving approximately 86% accuracy with near-instantaneous results. Traditional methods require removing abalone from their shells, causing stress and potential injury. The work, conducted at UC San Diego using NSF ACCESS allocations on SDSC’s Expanse and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s Bridges-2 systems, supports conservation hatcheries in selecting mature breeding candidates more efficiently. This research was completed prior to Dr. Solares’s appointment as Executive Director of ESB AI Lab.