Meiqing, Wang, Dr.

Research area and Academic background:
Meiqing works in the area of precision livestock farming, aiming to improve livestock welfare using state-of-the-art computer vision and signal analysis techniques. Specifically, she's developing monitoring tools for group-housed livestock, such as dairy cows, using RGB video to track individual animals and analyze their physiological and behavioral patterns.
Meiqing did her Ph.D. in Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven, Belgium, under the guidance of Prof. Tomas Norton (KU Leuven) and Prof. Jean-Loup Rault (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna). During her doctoral studies, she designed methods based on RGB video to monitor heart and respiration rates, as well as postural behaviors in pigs. Prior to her Ph.D., Meiqing completed her bachelor's in applied mathematics at Minzu University of China and a master's in Control Science and Engineering at Beihang University (China).
Currently serving as a post-doctoral fellow in Animal Nutrition at ETH Zürich, Meiqing is focused on developing a computer vision-driven monitoring system for dairy cows. With Prof. Niu's mentorship and in collaboration with fellow group members, she's delving into the relationship between postural behaviors and heat stress, working to devise nutritional strategies to mitigate its impact. Additionally, she's deeply interested in exploring the social interactions within livestock herds.

Recent Publications:
1. Wang, M., Larsen, M. L., Liu, D., Winters, J. F., Rault, J. L., & Norton, T. (2022). Towards re-identification for long-term tracking of group housed pigs. Biosystems Engineering, 222, 71-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2022.07.017

2. Wang, M., Li, X., Larsen, M. L., Liu, D., Rault, J. L., & Norton, T. (2023). A computer vision-based approach for respiration rate monitoring of group housed pigs. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 210, 107899. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2023.107899

3. Wang, M., Larsen, M., Bayer, F., Maschat, K., Baumgartner, J., Rault, J. L., & Norton, T. (2021). A PCA-based frame selection method for applying CNN and LSTM to classify postural behaviour in sows. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 189, 106351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.106351

4. Wang, M., Youssef, A., Larsen, M., Rault, J. L., Berckmans, D., Marchant-Forde, J. N., ... & Norton, T. (2021). Contactless video-based heart rate monitoring of a resting and an anesthetized pig. Animals, 11(2), 442. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11020442

5. Larsen, M. L., Wang, M., & Norton, T. (2021). Information technologies for welfare monitoring in pigs and their relation to Welfare Quality®. Sustainability, 13(2), 692. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020692