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Header image: Laura Kloepper, Ph.D.

discussion

Software QA Topics

Matt Audette

9 January 2025 12:00pm

Hi everyone,What should we share or demo about Software Quality Assurance? Alex Saunders and I, the two Software QA people at Wildlife Protection Solutions (WPS) are going to...

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Bruce Holland

19 May 2025 5:30am

Hi everyone,

What should we share or demo about Software Quality Assurance? 

Alex Saunders and I, the two Software QA people at Wildlife Protection Solutions (WPS) are going to do a community call to knowledge share on software testing and test automation in the 3rd or 4th week of January.

We've listed a few QA topics that we could talk about in this 1-2 minute poll here basketball stars and would like your feedback on topic priority.

Thanks for your feedback and we look forward to connecting! We'll also post when we have an exact date and time pinned down.

Sounds like a great initiative—looking forward to it! I’d love to hear more about your real-world test automation setup, especially any tools or frameworks you’ve found effective at WPS. It’d also be helpful to see how QA fits into your dev workflow and any challenges you’ve faced specific to conservation tech. I just filled out the poll and can’t wait to see what topics get chosen. Thanks, Alex and team, for organizing this!

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discussion

What are Some Good Conservation Tech Graduate Programs/Paths?

Frida Ruiz

27 March 2025 2:05am

Hi everyone! I wanted to ask what are some schools (both in the US and internationally) that have good conservation tech programs or are able to do some type of concurrent...

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Kevin Shock

15 May 2025 12:56am

I went to University of Michigan for undergrad. I admired this graduate program in engineering sustainable systems. It's a dual degree through the school of nature resources and the college of engineering (for example, mechanical engineering department). You apply to both schools and if you get into both, you can get into this program.

Good luck!

Sarah Han-de-Beaux

16 May 2025 8:03am

I work on shark research using photo ID techniques, and the mother company running all the software is based in the US (called Conservation X). They are doing really exciting stuff to combine technology with conservation efforts. Perhaps its a company you could contact to see if there are internships or anything?

Veronica Castro

19 May 2025 3:19am

Hi Frida!

As a recent graduate gearing up for grad school applications, I've also been looking into conservation tech programs. As @carlybatist already mentioned, there's an Ecology and Data Science MSc from UCL, and @Frank_van_der_Most mentioned the upcoming program from the University of South Wales. I also want to add the MS in Conservation Technology from Florida Tech. 

I'll let you know if I find more.

 

 

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discussion

Automated Image analysis

Kendrew Colhoun

18 May 2025 5:10pm

Hi. Currently working on a project on an island where recreational activity is impacting breeding seabirds. Looking for AI solutions for interrogating time interval images of...

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discussion

The Boring Fund 2024 - MoveApps

Anne K Scharf

17 January 2025 12:54pm

 We are honored to be among the winners of The Boring Fund 2024! Thank you WILDLABS and Arm for selecting our project.MoveApps is a free no-code analysis platform for...

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Anne K Scharf

2 April 2025 12:15pm

We are pleased to inform you that we have now finalized point 2 and 3. Here some details of the update:

  • App browser improvements:
    • Improved overview and search: we have added a description of each category and
      the search and filtering options are improved.

    • Searching for Apps within a Workflow: we have added the option to include Apps
      that are not compatible with the IO type, making it easier to decide if a translator
      App is needed to include one of the incompatible Apps.

       

  • Public Workflows improvements:
    • Improved overview: the public Workflows are now organized by categories which
      can be also used for filtering.
    • More information: the details overview contains now the list of Apps included in
      each Workflow.
    • Sharing Workflows: when creating a public Workflow you will have to select one
      or more existing categories, but you can also always request a new category.

Go and check it out in MoveApps!

Anne K Scharf

16 May 2025 12:20pm

We are please to inform that we have implemented the point 1 and 4 and with this have finalized the project. The latest improvements:

  • Improvement in findability of help documentation: we have started to populate the platform with links (question mark icon) to the relevant
    sections of the user manual.
  • The log files of each App can now be downloaded and when an error occurs directly be sent to MoveApps support. Find more details here.

Again a great thank you for giving us the opportunity to implement these changes. We think they have greatly improved the user friendliness of MoveApps

 

 

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discussion

Must profit be part of the environmental solution?

Frank van der Most

12 February 2025 10:24pm

In this LinkedIn articlehttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/moral-dimension-why-profit-must-part-environmental-rich-stockdale-phd-r18se/Rich Stockdale argues for 'yes'. I may not agree...

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Frank van der Most

7 May 2025 8:37am

Hej Travis, . Thank you so much for sharing your experience. And your passion which must be shared by many if not all WildLAbs members! . I think you are summarising the current status of affairs in nature conservation, we build and conserve because it must be done, but it’s clearly not enough. Hence my thought: what if people could earn money ( like, a decent income, or even a lot of money), would that work as a motivator for a massive drive of activities towards nature conservation? You seem to be arriving at a similar conclusion for the sake of tech development, ie for technical innovation. I would seek more innovation in social and economic thinking on nature conservation and how it is organised and financed. Profit seeking could be such an innovation. . Cheers . Frank . PS sorry for my late response. Your message arrived in the midst of mi move from Costa Rica to Spain, so I’ve spent little time on WildLabs and the theme I had I had to spend on my share in organising the upcoming webinar on sustainable income streams for open source projects.
Kim Hendrikse

7 May 2025 9:00am

I think you answered your own question Frank. If grants are out of the question and you actually want results at scale, profit is your only option. For the people/companies with something to offer and no funds in any case.

In my opinion, wildlife initiatives as a commercial target alone I would say is even harder than the more general IT market as the wildlife market is much smaller market with limited funding, especially this year.  So that means that the company is likely going to have to target normal markets to be viable, with wildlife as a side project for them in principle in the most cases. And there's a limited commercial market for wildlife initiatives, so philantrophy would likely also have to be part of the equation.

In today's world with a lot of horrific people with a lot of power, we need to encourage people to realise that success is not just about making money, but also about being a good person and contributing to the planet. Unfortunately, a lot of people with enormous amounts of money and enormous egos seem to equate success only with money and greed. With a few exceptions. We need more exceptions.

Sarah Han-de-Beaux

16 May 2025 8:14am

I very much agree. It is a shame that companies/organisations are willing to spend so much to take from the earth and so little to give back. In the example I come from, we are a team of pure citizen scientists that give all our time for free to perform shark research. In my case, those same volunteers often use money from their own back pocket to keep the project going. We also rely heavily on the generosity of Conservation X to keep our software running and the servers alive.

Technology is not cheap to run. Every server uses electricity and as we all know its going up in price. 

It is a very scary situation when I know that all shark research that we are performing with Spot a Shark (and is being relied on by scientists to publish studies) is funded by nothing more than favours and donations. If that all ended tomorrow, do we just stop all research, awareness, campaigning etc and hope for the best?  

My view is that it ultimately comes down to the government to ensure that conservation is valued. Take extra taxes from the wealthy organisations / banks etc and fund this stuff. I am sure if people like Mark Zuckerberg etc can afford a $900k watch to wear on their wrist, they could afford to support conservation. 

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event

A Conservation Technology Meetup in Botswana!

Adrien Pajot

15 May 2025 11:52am

We are excited to invite you to a special meetup in Maun, Botswana! This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow conservation tech enthusiasts, share ideas, and enjoy a relaxed evening together

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Frank van der Most

16 May 2025 9:58am

I wish I could join. Have good memories of Maun and Botswana - like looking into the eyes of a lion, whilst sitting in an open truck parked in the middle of a den of hungry lions.
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discussion

Poaching data request

Martina Fernando

23 January 2025 2:27pm

Hi everyone!My name is Martina Fernando, and I am a PhD student in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology at Sapienza University of Rome. For my PhD project I aim to identify...

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Morena Rodriguez

25 March 2025 8:33am

Hello Martina, I just messaged you! Hope to speak soon! :)

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discussion

Proposing a new group

Diego Montecino-Latorre

30 January 2025 6:59pm

Hi!  Is it possible to propose a new Group? 

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discussion

AgTech: Breaking out of silos

Amber Balfour-Cunningham

29 April 2025 6:24am

I am a PhD student an new WILDLABS member and am loving it so far! Especially the WILDLABS.NET Variety Hour YouTube recordings and the different discussion groups!I loved the...

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discussion

Prospective NSF INTERN 

Frank Short

11 February 2025 10:00am

Hello all,My name is Frank Short and I am a PhD Candidate at Boston University in Biological Anthropology. I am currently doing fieldwork in Indonesia using machine-learning...

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Dora Summers

8 May 2025 8:51am

My name is Frank Short and I am a PhD Candidate at Boston University in Biological Anthropology. I am currently doing fieldwork in Indonesia using machine-learning powered passive acoustic monitoring focusing on wild Bornean orangutans (and other primates). I am reaching out because as a student with a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, I am eligible to take advantage of the NSF INTERN program which supports students to engage in non-academic internships through covering a stipend and other expenses, with the only caveat being that the internship must be in-person and not remote. I was wondering if any organizations in conservation technology would be interested in a full-time intern that would be coming in with their own funding? 

In addition to experience with machine learning and acoustics through training a convolutional neural network for my research, I also have worked with GIS, remote sensing, and animal movement data through other projects. Further, I have experience in community outreach both in and outside of academic settings, as I previously worked for the Essex County Department of Parks and Recreation in New Jersey for 3 years where I created interpretive signs, exhibits, newsletters, brochures, and social media posts. Now while doing my fieldwork in Indonesia, I have led hands-on trainings in passive acoustic monitoring placement and analysis as well as given talks and presentations at local high schools and universities. 

I would love to be able to use this opportunity (while the funding still exists, which is uncertain moving forward due to the current political climate in the US) to exercise and develop my skills at a non-academic institution in the conservation technology sphere! If anyone has any suggestions or is part of an organization that would be interested in having me as an intern, please contact me here or via my email: fshort@bu.edu geometry dash. Thank you!

Hi Frank, your work sounds incredibly valuable and well-aligned with current needs in conservation tech. With your strong background in machine learning, acoustics, GIS, and outreach, you’d be an asset to many organizations. I’d recommend looking into groups like Rainforest Connection, Wildlife Acoustics, or the Conservation Tech Directory (by WILDLABS)—they often work on acoustic monitoring and might be open to in-person internships, especially with funding already in place. Best of luck finding the right match—your initiative is impressive!

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discussion

iNaturalist tips & tricks?

Amber Balfour-Cunningham

28 April 2025 5:33am

iNaturalist (iNat) may be the most successful citizen science venture ever. Now at over 230 million verifiable reports, 290 000 active users and 5000 publications. It is easy to...

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Manish Gadhvi

2 May 2025 3:43pm

I'm new to iNaturalist but I did a personal project recently that made use of it's awesome API.



I used it to fetch only research-grade, open-location spider sightings, then performed a spatial join with Wildlife Trust regional boundary data (via an ArcGIS REST service) using GeoPandas. I visualised the results on an interactive Folium map with clustering, and set up a Prefect workflow to keep the data updated monthly. Final outputs include a clean CSV for analysis and the live map. You can see the project here 

Read "GitHub - mgadhvi/spider-project: This project uses iNaturalist spider sightings and Wildlife Trust boundary data to create an interactive map, helping visitors identify spider species they might encounter in different Wildlife Trust regions across the UK." on GitHub

GitHub - mgadhvi/spider-project: This project uses iNaturalist spider sightings and Wildlife Trust boundary data to create an interactive map, helping visitors identify spider species they might encounter in different Wildlife Trust regions across the UK.

This project uses iNaturalist spider sightings and Wildlife Trust boundary data to create an interactive map, helping visitors identify spider species they might encounter in different Wildlife Trust regions across the UK. - mgadhvi/spider-project

GitHub

Coming from a developer looking to change to nature tech, I found it a well document and easy API to work with :)

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discussion

Is a physical meet possible this 2025?

CathyNj

20 April 2025 4:28pm

I would like to propose a physical meet up, sip and share conservation tech. How many would be up for it? Kindly comment below. Thanks!

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Carly Batist

21 April 2025 4:56pm

WILDLABS is in the process of organizing a global Conservation Tech Conference - @Adrien_Pajot is leading on that. I think it's meant to be sometime early 2026?

Thomas Gray

5 May 2025 8:32pm

Love the idea!!

Monterey Bay, CA here : ) 

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discussion

Counting Problems in Conservation

Niki

30 April 2025 6:27pm

We're actively exploring new applications for CountGD, our object counting model designed to automatically count instances in images. So far, we've partnered with...

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discussion

DIY: Pressure Chamber

Thomas Gray

17 April 2025 3:31pm

I want to build a pressure chamber to test equipment down to 2000m. I figured it would be cheaper than buyer a boat.Has anyone done this before that can provide recommendations...

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Thomas Gray

5 May 2025 3:50pm

Yeah, you definitely need to try and purge any air in the tank! 

I've seen the effect of a tank lid shearing off, and it wasn't pretty (no one hurt, but it could've very easily been a different story). 

David Hill

5 May 2025 7:07pm

Remember Oceangate Titan? Not pretty! Rating equipment for EXTERNAL pressure is a different ballgame to rating it for internal pressure, if you are wanting to send it to that depth. Neither is a trivial design nor construction, even if you are wanting to test the equipment inside a vessel. So unless you, personally, have the necessary qualifications and skill to design such a unit, may I suggest that you try to find someone who can. Depending on equipment size and your country, there will be regulatory authorities that will require inspections and certifications before it is commissioned. Stay safe!
David Hill

5 May 2025 7:11pm

No air in the vessel. Hydraulic pressure testing is just that because any vessel failure does not cause explosive release of gas and possibly vessel fragments as a result.  It is still not pretty, as Thomas Gray says, but it is orders of magnitude safer.

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