We’re delighted to welcome Zoey Sun to Dragonfly Data Science. With a background in computer science and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Zoey brings deep expertise in machine learning, computer vision, and forestry-focused AI.
Zoey was born and raised in Shandong, China, where she completed a Bachelor of Digital Media Technology and a Master’s in Computer Application Technology. Her early research explored AI for image processing, applied in areas such as autonomous driving and safety monitoring.
“Back then, I didn’t choose computer science, it chose me,” Zoey laughs. “But once I started studying it, I realised how fascinating it was to use AI to solve real-world problems, and wanted to expand on this in my PhD.”
Zoey came to Aotearoa for her PhD at Victoria University of Wellington, joining the Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence within the Evolutionary Computation Research Group.
Her doctoral work centred on using deep learning to support forestry research, including individual tree-crown detection, segmentation, and species classification, completed in collaboration with Manaaki Whenua–Landcare Research.
Although it was her first time living outside China, Zoey quickly fell in love with Wellington.
“Up until now, my main focus has always revolved around furthering my education, but I really enjoy the work–life balance here. People respect each other, there’s equality, freedom, space, and no judgment.”
During the final year of her PhD, Zoey worked part-time at Callaghan Innovation, where she applied her AI expertise to practical projects and sharpened her professional skills. Most importantly, the experience reinforced her desire to work on real-world industrial applications of AI.
When it came time to transition into a full-time role, she turned to Dragonfly, having heard of the company’s work in forestry AI, and decided to reach out directly.
Now part of the forestry and remote sensing team, Zoey joins Dragonfly at an exciting moment. She is contributing to the MBIE-funded project with NASA, a three-year programme developing advanced tools for modelling forest canopy structure using satellite, airborne, and AI-driven data.
“My main role is developing deep-learning models for forestry — predicting canopy height, tree segmentation, and species classification. It’s been great to join such a supportive, collaborative team, even with people working remotely.”
It’s a perfect fit for me. The work is so similar to my PhD, and it feels meaningful. I feel really fortunate to be working in this role.
We’re thrilled to welcome Zoey to Dragonfly and look forward to the impact she’ll make across our AI and environmental science projects.