VGP (Valentin) Bordoux

I listen to fish, and my goal is to build AI that can do it instead of me.
I work at the interface between underwater bioacoustics and computer science.

I develop tools to monitor marine life using underwater sound, through a method called Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM). Many marine animals, including fish and invertebrates, make sounds as they feed, mate, and communicate. By recording and analysing these sounds, we can detect species and behaviours without needing to see them. But the ocean is noisy, and sorting through audio manually is slow and labour-intensive.

To tackle this challenge, I combine bioacoustics with machine learning, developing sound detectors that can automatically identify species. As part of my Engineering Doctorate (EngD), I’ve trained detection models on real-world recordings from the North Sea, built an autonomous recorder with onboard processing, and created a dashboard to visualise the data and interact with the monitoring system remotely.

My goal is to make underwater biodiversity monitoring scalable and accessible, 
so we can better understand and protect our ocean.

Academic Path
I graduated from a double degree program in Mechatronic Engineering at INSA Strasbourg (France) and earned an MSc in Imaging, Robotics, and Biomedical Technologies from Télécom Physique Strasbourg. During this time, I learned how to design and build robots, along with the technical skills that go into creating intelligent systems.

In 2023, I had the opportunity to apply these skills to a worthy cause: marine conservation. That’s when I joined Wageningen University as an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) candidate in the Marine Animal Ecology group, where I’m now focused on improving underwater monitoring methods using acoustic technologies.