Ayla McDonald

Ayla did a 2-month research internship with us in 2026 during her Bachelor Degree, as part of an exchange between Dalhousie University and Sorbonne Université.

Ayla’s internship was built on Jenny’s internship (2025), as she re-worked on video recordings of spiny chromis (Acanthochromis polyacanthus) juveniles exposed to microplastic particles in a double choice tank, as part of the ACANTHOPLASTICS project, in order to evaluate fish preferences for water flumes containing vs not containing microplastics. Ayla updated our in-house Python tracking algorithm by training pose estimation models (YOLO) to analyze fish behavior and time spent in each compartment of a double choice flume tank, with the objective of investigating fish velocity, linearity, and preferences.

After her internship with us, Ayla pursued her Bachelor studies at Dalhousie University (Canada).