Dara is currently a postdoc research scholar in the Applied Ecology lab in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Dara’s postdoc project involves the application of a computer vision model to support the management of fisheries through the use of underwater video.

Dara Farrell obtained her Ph.D. in  Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle in the summer of 2019 where the focus of her research was underwater acoustics – specifically anthropogenic and background noise characterization. Dara began her university career with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago, and went on to complete her Masters degree in Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign on a Fulbright-LASPAU scholarship. She strives toward a multi-disciplinary approach to measuring, understanding and solving environmental problems, and has used machine learning, GIS, and passive acoustics in her past work.