Note: I am currently seeking out research roles within academia or industry. If my profile fits your requirements, please feel free to reach out to me.
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Adriano D'Alessandro

PhD Candidate (Computer Science)

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I’m a computer vision researcher and PhD candidate living in Vancouver. My work focuses on object counting with limited data, and lately, I’ve been diving into using synthetic data from latent diffusion models to train counting models. I’m also into things like plant agriculture and biodiversity—basically, anywhere counting and nature intersect in interesting ways.

Education

PhD Computer Science | Simon Fraser University
Present
BSc. Computer Science | University of Guelph
2017
BSc. Chemistry | University of Guelph
2012

Publications & Book Chapters

AFreeCA: Annotation-Free Counting for All | ECCV

Authors: Adriano D'Alessandro, Ali Mahdavi-Amiri, Ghassan Hamarneh

Utilizing latent diffusion models for annotation-free object counting across diverse categories.

2024
Learning-to-Count by Learning-to-Rank | CVR

Authors: Adriano D'Alessandro, Ali Mahdavi-Amiri, Ghassan Hamarneh

Reducing the annotation burden for object counting by leveraging ranking supervision.

2023
The human impact of data bias and the digital agricultural revolution | Handbook on the human impact of agriculture, Edward Elgar Publishing

Authors: Kelly Bronson, Sarah Rotz, Adriano D'Alessandro

A analysis of big datasets and the ‘intelligent’ machines which use them in decision support systems for farmers.

2021
Name2vec: Personal names embeddings | CCAI

Authors: Jeremy Foxcroft, Adriano D'Alessandro, Luiza Antonie

Creating name-embeddings for record linkage and document retrieval using Doc2Vec

2019

Work Experience

Computer Vision Researcher | Terramera x SFU
  • Plant growth modeling & forecasting using deep learning and computer vision
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  • Quantified changes in plant morphology over time, which included the use of GANs, as well as probabilistic models for nastic and tropic plant movement
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2020 - 2022
Computer Vision Researcher | Ecoation x SFU
  • Worked on fruit detection and tracking problems under field conditions
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  • Consulted directly with growers to identify opportunities for automation
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  • Developed and reported on strategies for forecasting tomato yields, including strategies for replacing manual labour involved in yield forecasting
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2018 - 2019
Undergraduate Research Assistant | Luiza Antonie Research Lab, University of Guelph
  • Started a project involving the development of a surname similarity metric which could be used to link records with transcription errors in Canadian historical census data
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  • This work was continued by a collaborated who published it as a conference paper in CCAI
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2017
Software Development Intern | Advanced Energy Centre @ MaRS Discovery District
  • Developed preliminary infrastructure for a vertical search API capable of curating information relevant to trade ministers interested in Canadian renewable energy startups
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  • Utilized several popular techniques for indexing documents such as TF-IDF, and LSA
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2016
Database Assistant | UofG x Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
  • Supported a joint database project between UofG and OMAFRA by updating the archives of an application system for agriculture-related research funding
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  • Developed a tool that updated archived documents to comply with AODA and WCAG
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2015

Board Experience

Board of Directors Member | Simon Fraser Public Interest Group
  • Responsible for governance, visioning, hiring, and fiscal management for a community research focused non-profit
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  • Led hiring committees and staff appraisal processes
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2018 - 2021
Board of Directors Member | Guelph Ontario Public Interest Group
  • Responsible for governance, visioning, hiring, and fiscal management for a community research focused non-profit
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  • Supported the development of an annual public research symposium that saw 60 speakers and hundreds of attendees over a 3 day weekend
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2015 - 2017