There are educators everywhere working to teach 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.
The United Nations released the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which have served as a framework for educators in this space. Educating with a sustainable focus is a challenge whether you are interested in engineering, public policy, AI, or behavioral biology and we hope that this group will help you grow and exchange your ideas with other current and future educators.
This WILDLABS group has been set up by folks who are working to develop education toolkits, platforms, modules, and more in the conservation space. These tools can be at any level of development.
We hope you will become part of this group to share case studies, exchange ideas, and work towards developing a curriculum for future conservation tool crafters.
Current Examples of Conservation Tech Education Resources:
CV4Ecology Summer Workshop:
- Website for Summer Camp Information,
- Applications Due December 15th for next cohort
- 2022 Material including Syllabus, Lectures, Invited Talks, Final Presentations
Tech Tutors from WILDLABS
- TechTutors Season 1, WILDLABS
- TechTutors Season 2, WILDLABS
- TechTutors Season 3, WILDLABS
Want to know more about Conservation Technology education resources? Make sure to join the conversation in the WILDLABS Conservation Tech Training and Education group.
Additional Conservation Tech Courses:
- Tech4Wildlife @ Georgia Tech – Interdisciplinary and Project Based course on Conservation Technology
- MSc Wildlife Conservation Tech – Liverpool John Moores University Program
Group curators
- @StreamingScience
- | he/him/his
Georgia Institute of Technology
Andrew’s always looking to find new interdisciplinary teams in the conservation tech space. He is a postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute, who completed his PhD at Georgia Tech in 2022. His interests including conservation tech education and engineering work.
- 0 Resources
- 14 Discussions
- 3 Groups
- @sstathat
- | she/her
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.
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 7 Groups
- @cshriver
- | she/her/hers
Georgia Institute of Technology
PhD student in Quantitative Biosciences
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 3 Groups
Wildlife conservation enthusiast, looking to gain more experience & knowledge
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 2 Groups
PhD candidate studying the ethics of tech in human-animal interactions.
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 3 Groups
- @nabilla.nuril
- | She/Her
Incoming student of UCL MSc Ecology and Data Science
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @Hansa
- | He/Him
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @ATM
- | HE
I studied Wildlife and Ecotourism Management in University of Ìbàdàn, Nigeria, I'm a front-end developer. I am interested in conservation technology
- 0 Resources
- 5 Discussions
- 11 Groups
- @valeria
- | she/her
Studio Pixel
AI integration architect, AI product manager. I've built the front-end of this website 😁
- 0 Resources
- 3 Discussions
- 13 Groups
- 0 Resources
- 16 Discussions
- 18 Groups
- @Harperinos
- | he/him
'Diploma of Conservation & Ecosystem Management' student at TAFE NSW Australia.
- 0 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @shana
- | she/her
I am a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. I am a researcher with the eDNA Collaborative and Co-Director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center.
- 1 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 7 Groups
Heading up comms for a conservation agency based in the United Arab Emirates
- 0 Resources
- 0 Discussions
- 6 Groups
- @amtsongo
- | Mr
African Parks
African Parks/D.R. Congo
- 0 Resources
- 1 Discussions
- 5 Groups
- 7 Resources
- 2 Discussions
- 5 Groups
April 2024
May 2024
July 2024
event
October 2024
January 2024
December 2023
event
event
The Wildlife Society Conference
19 June 2023 5:59am
How to get more done in the little time you have. Delegate. 5 hacks how to do it.
16 June 2023 1:47pm
30 June 2023 3:13pm
Apply for the Google for Startups Accelerator: Climate Change Middle East & Africa Program
9 June 2023 1:54pm
Imageomics Institute Image Datapalooza, August 2023
2 June 2023 11:44pm
ISO Speakers for Emerging Technologies class.
31 May 2023 4:29pm
31 May 2023 10:21pm
Definitely interested! I'm in the ecoacoustics/acoustic monitoring space, working at Rainforest Connection and Arbimon.
2 June 2023 2:08pm
Carly, that would be great! Thanks! I work with soundscapes and love the work of Rainforest Connection! I'll send you an email (@CUNY) to coordinate!
Biodiversity 101 - Your complete beginner guide
23 May 2023 7:40am
Lecturer/Associate Professor of Ecology and Innovative Technologies
16 May 2023 9:25am
Marine Mammals Research Association (DMAD) and ACCOBAMS Joint Training Course
4 May 2023 1:00pm
Bluspark - Integrated management platefmorm for protected areas
28 April 2023 9:28pm
[Recordings Now Available!) EarthRanger User Conference
27 April 2023 5:52am
Looking to contribute
27 April 2023 2:41am
Looking for entry level remote role in GIS/environmental analysis in the United States
22 April 2023 12:05am
The 59th Annual Meeting of Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society
12 April 2023 5:24am
Conservation Tech 101: How you can innovate for the planet
11 April 2023 11:21pm
MOOC TECH
6 April 2023 1:06pm
Moveapps: EMAC23 Coding Challenge
3 March 2023 7:58am
3 March 2023 3:12pm
Super initiative! I hope you get a lot of entries to this coding challenge!
6 March 2023 7:53am
Thanks Lars! Look forward to any entries from you and your colleagues. If you have an questions or suggestions, let me know.
6 March 2023 1:11pm
Hi Andrea! Although I am a keen user and observer of the Moveapps initiative, my R or Python coding skills are next to non- existing. I am therefore not likely to be contributing this time... Some day perhaps ;)
USD500 available for your workshop
6 March 2023 1:30pm
Moveapps EMAC23 Coding Challenge – Participate now!
3 March 2023 7:45am
Welcome to the Conservation Tech Training and Education Group!
31 October 2022 9:15pm
16 February 2023 1:35pm
Hi everyone!
Popping in here to drop in the recording of the chat we had with Suzanne and Andrew about this group at our recent Variety Hour call. If you're new to the group it might be a useful orientation.
Steph
24 February 2023 2:24pm
Hi Folks,
I'm Liz Ferguson from Ocean Science Analytics and just noticing this thread so reaching out to express interest! Thanks for posting that overview Stephanie.
My company is an ocean science research consulting and online technical training company. We provide hands-on training for software, thus far related to passive acoustic monitoring and R, but have a Marine spatial analysis course coming out using QGIS in 2023. I also teach at a local college, and some analytical courses. Really interested in the group so happy you started it Suz and Andrew!
2 March 2023 2:03pm
Thank you liz! @sstathat and I are really excited about the group as well. I can imagine there are a lot of challenges with training folks to use the software. Are these software/trainings. open source and/or available online?
What new best-practice guides do you need?
23 February 2023 10:06am
24 February 2023 12:39pm
This guide for ecoacoustics looks good. I havent read it yet though!
24 February 2023 1:00pm
Yeah it looks great! Actually that guide coming out at the same week as the sat tracking guide is what prompted this thread!
26 February 2023 6:18pm
What about thermal cameras and drones with thermal cameras for monitoring of mammals?
Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Annual Meeting 2023
20 February 2023 10:56pm
Download Now: A Best Practice Guide to Satellite Technologies for Tracking Wildlife
17 February 2023 10:29am
17 February 2023 11:34am
20 February 2023 9:34am
Suggestions for user research/co-design methodologies
9 November 2022 11:32am
31 January 2023 3:01pm
Hi,
I'm the UX researcher at Rainforest Connection (RFCx). I use research methods such as interviews, usability testing, and card sorting to understand scientists' pain points and needs while using the bioacoustic monitoring platform, Arbimon.
In terms of tools, I use Figjam for brainstorming and mapping, Notion for a research repository, Zoom for interviews, and Figma for prototyping. I'm exploring how to use ChatGPT to speed up my process too! I use it to draft recruitment emails, summarize transcripts etc. I try to use tools that are either low-cost or that RFCx already has subscriptions of.
Since I'm a UX team of one, I also partner with University student groups/practicum courses to let UX students take on some of our projects.
Feel free to reach out; I'm always happy to chat.
10 February 2023 1:06pm
Hi @Sicily_Fiennes
Apologies for the very late response to this thread, are you still looking for advice on user research and co-creation methodologies? I see there is a lot of support here on tools already ;-)
I would recommend running some sessions with low fidelity prototypes as early as possible, definitely before investing in any development! You can do this with a variety of tools, but paper prototypes can also be great if you are trying to compare very different concepts. You can use sketches to run more of a co-creation session, so that you encourage your users to define the data insights that they need explicitly and explore together different ways of visualizing & interacting with the information.
I normally do 1-1 interviews to define needs and identify potential barriers, before prototyping. But, you might be further ahead in the design process by now.
If you still need some advice on defining the key use cases or the data visualization with users, I would be happy to offer a quick chat over zoom on how to go about it.
I am an independent service designer / user researcher with 14 years of experience in the tech industry, based in Europe :-)
Hope this helps!
Yanna
14 February 2023 1:21am
Hi @Sicily_Fiennes,
Over the past several years, I have explored how to design engaging and useful tools for the exploration of audio recording to locate calls of a particular bird species (i.e. Eastern bristlebirds). I worked to understand the practices of a species recovery team, as well as their experiences trialling audio recorders and analysis. Additionally, I explored knowledge of birders and broader audiences, and how this relates to them making sense of audio recordings and broader nature media (e.g. distribution maps and photographs of birds). My methods to understand these included semistructured interviews, artifact exploration (very low fidelity prototyping), and ethnographically inspired participant-observer fieldwork. I also took some inspiration from design research approaches such as contextual inquiry, cultural/technical probes, and more. My background prior to being a design researcher was in ecology, conservation, and environmental education, so I drew from that expertise to understand a little-known bird species and the role of technology in supporting people in becoming familiar with it. Most of my work was positioned within the field of Interaction Design, publishing via Human-Computer Interaction, Designing Interactive Systems, and Computer Supported Cooperative Work outlets (i.e. rather than UX/UI). If interested in knowing more, perhaps have a look at papers I was the first author on that are listed here, and a few videos here. My research highlights the importance of understanding the situation, knowledge, experiences, and needs of different groups of people to design enticing and useful technologies that foster learning, cooperation, and integration into existing practices. In my experience, people are sometimes compelled to be more open and creative when not interacting with technologies that can be perceived as expensive and polished products.
How to conduct rapid eligibility assessments for forest carbon projects using geospatial data
3 February 2023 3:32pm
Consultancy opportunity: Wildlife monitoring specialist
31 January 2023 11:26am
Gender Equality in Conservation
30 January 2023 10:27am
Solar panels in the tropics
26 January 2023 12:28am
27 January 2023 1:23pm
Hi Tom,
I'm with Akiba, you have to test. A collaborator has deployed solar-augmented kit in secondary jungle and some of them got enough light, and others didn't, so it can work. The open circuit voltage of solar panels doesn't change a whole lot in dim light, but the current drops drastically. So you would choose an oversize panel of the same voltage (or a bit higher).
Thanks
27 January 2023 3:56pm
I've been intrigued by this topic. Thinking about ways you could use drones or some kind of launcher to deploy panels above the canopy. Sadly I live in the great white north so I have no way of testing any concepts. Maybe even some kind of solar balloon that could float above the canopy. Interesting design problem.
30 January 2023 10:10am
Hey Tom,
Since the output is dependent on a couple of factors such as the solar irradiance of the place, shading from the canopy, the type of solar panels (mono, poly or amorphous) and orientation of the panels, etc, I'd suggest you use a software to simulate the different parameters to get an almost accurate estimation of the output. You can try PVsyst- it has a free month trial (I haven't used it before but I hear it's great) or any other PV software :)
AI for Forest Elephants Challenge
25 January 2023 3:34pm
Advanced Field School in Computational Ecology
25 January 2023 2:54pm
Firetail Fellowships
19 January 2023 12:11pm
I'm a software engineer/data scientist at Schäuffelhut Berger. We're developing Firetail a software for GPS and acceleration visualization and behavioral annotation.
We have just launched our Firetail Fellowship Program which may be a great way to get access to a full Firetail license for your student project. Let me know if you have questions or comments on this!
19 June 2023 6:29pm