This project will establish the Virgin Islands Center for Autonomous Research (VICAR) at the University of the Virgin Islands. VICAR will build research capacity in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) as a leader in automated ecosystem research, education, and workforce development. The project will build infrastructure supporting automation in ecological and physical research and accelerate research, restoration, and management of coral reef, mangrove, and pelagic ecosystems. This work will lead to the development a sustainable STEM ecosystem across all educational levels in the USVI. Research will develop autonomous methods using underwater and aerial robotic vehicles, 3D modeling, and artificial intelligence to address key questions about how marine ecosystems respond to environmental stressors. The project will create an interdisciplinary and skilled local workforce through involvement of 116 graduate and undergraduate students in research, development and deployment of VICAR methodologies, engagement of over 3,000 public middle and high school students in locally focused STEM programming, and creation of a new university course on ecological robotics and artificial intelligence. This research will underpin the staged development of VICAR's Integrated Undersea Survey (VICARIUS) platform, a core knowledge base directed towards research of ocean and maritime ecosystems and designed to evolve with emerging technologies. VICAR will (1) establish methods for automated reef surv