Sensing the Environment Hackathon (July 14th - 16th @ PNCA)

Sensing the Environment:  A series of collaborative projects between

Make+Think+Code@PNCA, Intel, and the Sandy River Basin Watershed Council to use art and technology to better understand our ecosystems, and the habitats and behaviours of birds and other life that shares our environment.

We begin with a hackathon at Make+Think+Code@PNCA (July 14 - 16, followed by a week of prototyping and presentations on July 21) for naturalists and ecologists, artists, designers, and technologists.  
If you'd like to join us for any part of the project, please fill in the form linked here.

The Goal(s):
Design and build sensor kits to gather environmental data; use techniques of data science (deep learning) to analyse and interpret the data that we collect; and discover and tell the hidden stories about these species and spaces through virtual/augmented/mixed reality.  

​The First Project: Acoustic monitoring  
Design and build a prototype for a kit to detect, track, and identify migrating birds and bats through sound.    We currently have very little data for the region and while there are wonderful operational devices in existence,  new technology and creative minds like you can create a mobile, (wireless), self-sustaining version we can use on rooftops, windows, all over Portland and the Pacific Northwest.    Ideally, the new device would be battery-powered (with solar recharging, even better), and the system could record every sound onto a thumb drive or send it wirelessly to the cloud.   Come play, experiment in collaborative teams, and create an amazing device that allows us to discover the birds and bats that inhabit and move through our region!

​The Second Project:  Creating sensor kits for volunteer citizen scientists   
Design and build a mobile sensor kit that gathers environmental data (about air, water, soil, light, canopy, ...) and connects to a corresponding app on your phone.   The goal is to find correlations between the various fauna and flora and their environment.  We focus on the Sandy River and its delta to help determine which organisms are thriving or suffering in which environments so that they can direct volunteer efforts in planting trees and creating waterways that best support these organisms (plants, animals, reptiles, bugs, fish, etc.).