Diatoms are a type of  unicellular microalgae commonly used as bio-indicators for monitoring the ecological status of watercourses, particularly in the context of the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. Current biological indices based on diatoms rely on morphological criteria (shape and ornamentation of the siliceous exoskeleton, the frustule) that are sometimes difficult to characterize using conventional optical methods.

The objective of the project is to develop a framework to automatically identify diatoms from virtual slide images using deep learning.