WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

WILDLABS logoWildlabs.net : The conservation technology network

Group

Conservation Tech Training and Education / Feed

There are educators everywhere working to teach and train the next generation of sustainability minded students. Whether in formal settings (K-12, undergraduate, graduate) settings or informally as science communication now it is more important than ever to work towards advancing Conservation Tech education. By working on interdisciplinary teams we can help develop teaching and training tools to help expand the field of Conservation Technology creation.

Group curators

Suzanne Stathatos
Suzanne’s drive to protect the natural world led her to graduate school at Caltech. She is a Computing and Mathematical Sciences PhD student, advised by Pietro Perona. Her interests include leveraging machine learning and computer vision techniques to solve ecological problems.
Message
discussion

Seeking Knowledge/Resources about Soil Monitoring

Frida Ruiz

10 April 2024 9:53pm

Hi everyone! I am currently gathering research for my undergraduate senior project, which I hope to address by through robotics and technology. I am writing here to see if there...

3 1
Akiba

12 April 2024 2:32pm

Hi Frida. 

We are currently doing soil monitoring for ecological restoration in Australia with an organization called Bush Heritage Australia. It's been ongoing for about four years and it's in collaboration with BHA and also Monash University's soil science department. There's more info about the project here:

 

Frida Ruiz

14 April 2024 12:21am

Hi! If you wouldn't mind, would we be able to exchange emails and connect? I'd love to have a short discussion and get some feedback regarding my senior project 

See full post
discussion

Blind Spots in Conservation Tech Management in Remote Landscapes: Seeking Your Input

Luciano Foglia

20 March 2024 10:51am

Hello Everyone,I wanted to discuss something that's been on my mind since I started working in frontline conservation. Coming from the art+tech scene and being a maker myself, I'...

2 4
Alasdair Davies

22 March 2024 9:48am

Hi @lucianofoglia 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with the community. What you've touched on resonates with a number of users and developers (looking at you @Rob_Appleby) who share similar concerns and are keen to address these issues.

As a beliver in open sourcing conservation technologies, to mitigate issues you've noted (maintenance of technologies / solutions, repairability, technical assistance to name but a few), really the only way to achieve this in my eyes is through the promotion of openness to enable a wide range of both technical and non-technical users to form the pool of skills needed to react to what you have stated. If they can repair a device, or modify it easily, we can solve the waste issue and promote reusability, but first they need access to achieve this and commerical companies typically shy away from releasing designs to protect against their IP that they keep in house to sell devices / solutions. 

I would think for an organisation to achieve the same the community would need to help manufacturers and developers open and share hardware designs, software, repairability guides etc, but the reality today is as you have described.

One interesting conversation is around a kitemark, i.e a stamp of approval similar to the Open Source Hardware Association's OSHWA Certification), but as it's not always hardware related, the kitemark could cover repairability (making enclosure designs open access, or levels of openness to start to address the issue). Have a look at https://certification.oshwa.org/ for more info. I spent some time discussing an Open IoT Kitemark with http://www.designswarm.com/  back in 2020 with similar values as you have described - https://iot.london/openiot/

You may want to talk more about this at the upcoming Conservation Optimism Summit too. 

Happy to join you on your journey :)

Alasdair (Arribada)
 

Luciano Foglia

30 March 2024 3:57pm

Hi @Alasdair 
Great to hear from you! Thanks for the comment and for those very useful links (very interesting). And for letting @Rob_Appleby know. I can't wait to hear from her. 

Open source is my preference as well. And it's a good idea. But, already developing the tech in house is a step ahead from what would be the basic functional application of an organization that could manage the tech for a whole country/region. 

I have witnessed sometime how tech have not added much to the efficiency of local teams but instead being an tool to promote the work of NGOs. And because of that then innovative technologies are not developed much further that a mere donation (from the local team's perspective). But for that tech to prove efficient, a lot more work on the field have to be done after. The help of people with expertise in the front line with lots of time to dedicate to the cause is essential (this proves too expensive for local NGOs and rarely this aspect is consider).

I imagine this is something that needs to come from the side closer to the donors and International NGOs. Ideally only equipment can be lend within a subscription model and not just donated without accountability on how that tech is use. Effectively the resources can be distributed strategically over many projects. Allowing to tech to be repurposed. 

Sorry that I step down the technical talk, the thing is that sometimes the simplest things can make the most impact.

It would be good to know if any in the community that have spent considerable time working in conservation in remote regions, and have observed similar trends. 

Thanks! Luciano 

See full post
discussion

AI for Conservation!

Alessandro Calo

4 March 2024 8:51pm

Hi everybody!I just graduated in artificial intelligence (master's) after a bachelor's in computer engineering. I'm absolutely fascinated by nature and wildlife and I'm trying to...

7 5
Arky

22 March 2024 12:29pm

Welcome, Have you considered participating in any of the AI for Good challenges. I find it is good way to build a nice portfolio of work. Also contributing to existing open source ML projects such as megadetector or to upstream libraries such as PyTorch is good way to getting hired. 

 

 

 

Arky

25 March 2024 5:22am

We could always use more contributors in open source projects. In most open source companies Red Hat, Anaconda, Red Hat and Mozilla, people often ended up getting hired largely due to their contributions on open source projects. These contributions were both technical such as writing computer code and non-technical such as writing documentation and translating tools in their local language. 

 

See full post
discussion

Introduction + Mentorship/Research Partnership 

Frida Ruiz

20 March 2024 1:41am

Hello everyone! I am a current Princeton University undergraduate student passionate about conservation tech and habitat restoration. While I am involved in youth...

2 4
Andrew Quitmeyer

20 March 2024 2:14pm

Me and @Hubertszcz are working on biodiversity monitoring for habitat restoration on the Azuero penninsula in August. I don't have any like paid research opportunities i know of myself, but if you find yourself in panama, im sure they can use help!

See full post
discussion

Leveraging Actuarial Skills for Conservation Impact

Ruhan

15 March 2024 12:31pm

Hello Wildlabs Community,I'm an experienced actuary with a deep passion for wildlife and conservation. With over 15 years in the insurance industry, I've honed my skills in data...

7 1
See full post
discussion

How are Outdoor Fire Detection Systems Adapted for Small Forest Areas, Considering the Predominance of Indoor Fire Detectors?

Aditya Pal

8 January 2024 4:27pm

How are fire detection mechanisms tailored for outdoor environments, particularly in small forest areas, given that most fire and smoke detectors are designed for indoor use?

1 0
Bill Gray

22 January 2024 6:35pm

Fire detection is a sort of broad idea.  Usually people detect the products of fire, and most often this is smoke.

Many home fire detectors in the US use a radioactive source and measure the absorption of the radiation by the air.  More smoke means more absorption.

For outdoor fire detection, PM2.5 can be a very good smoke proxy, and outdoor PM2.5 sensing is pretty accessible.

This one is very popular in my area. 

Read "Classic - Air Quality Monitor | AQI PM2.5 Indoor/Outdoor Sensor – PurpleAir" on PurpleAir

Classic - Air Quality Monitor | AQI PM2.5 Indoor/Outdoor Sensor – PurpleAir

The PurpleAir Classic air quality monitor is the original and popular PurpleAir sensor. It measures real-time PM2.5 concentrations for residential, commercial, or industrial use and can be installed indoors or outdoors. Built-in WiFi enables the air quality measurement device to transmit data to the real-time PurpleAir AQI Map, which is stored and made available to any smart device. The PA-II is available in two editions. The SD edition includes an onboard SD logger to record and store data without a WiFi connection. Please note: This sensor does not come with a power adaptor. Find a suitable OUTDOOR-rated adaptor here or use your own USB power source (any 5V, 1.2 to 2.4 amp adaptor will work).

PurpleAir

 

See full post
discussion

Information to the young who are the future

CathyNj

8 January 2024 4:35pm

All our efforts in conservation will be beneficial mostly to the the young. How are you making available your works to them? I try to provide information in simple and fun way to...

2 0
See full post
discussion

CT Textbook?! Want to contribute/help author? Reach out! 

Andrew Schulz

21 February 2023 12:56pm

Hello All,I have had some great discussions this past few weeks on the Conservation Tech Introductory textbook for undergrads. If others would still like to be involved as authors...

7 6
Pen-Yuan Hsing

8 August 2023 6:26pm

Is there an update on this effort? It'd be great to create a fully open source open education resource (OER) from this!

Shana Hirsch

26 October 2023 4:45am

Hi Andrew, 

Are you still working on this text? I'd be interested in authoring a chapter, if you are. I'm a reasercher in Human Centered Design and Engineering at University of Washington, and I work in this space. 

Jason Irura

29 December 2023 2:07pm

Hi Stephie,

I want to start by apologising for not responding for more than ten months.I continue to be impressed by the information that Wildlabs provides, particularly in the conservation tech sector, which I try to follow because it's a subject that I'm really enthusiastic about. I am now situated in Germany.

See full post