EXPLORATION THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Engineers for Exploration (E4E) is a one of a kind program centered around multidisciplinary and collaborative student research projects with the broad goals of protecting the environment, uncovering mysteries related to cultural heritage, and providing experiential learning experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. We team student engineers with scientists from a wide range of disciplines, such as ecology, oceanography and archaeology. Students create new technologies to aid these scientists in their work and then accompany them on field deployments around the world. Projects train students in embedded systems and software, machine learning, electronic integration, mechanical design, system building, as well as project management and team leadership.
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Your support allows us to involve more students, which allows us to continue our research on existing and future projects. It is easy and even a small amount can make a big impact. Donate To UCSD E4E.
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Acoustics Species Will be at NeurIPS 2024!
Our paper, “A Deep Learning Approach to the Automated Segmentation of Bird Vocalizations from Weakly Labeled Crowd-sourced Audio,” has been accepted for a spotlight talk and poster presentation for Climate AI’s Tackling Climate Change workshop in NeurIPS 2024! Congratulations to the authors: Jacob Ayers, Sean Perry, Samantha Prestrelski, Tianqi Zhang, Ludwig von Schoenfeldt, Mugen Blue, Gabriel Steinberg, Mathias Tobler, Ian Ingram, Curt Schurgers, and Ryan Kastner!
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Fall 2024 Info Session
Info session will be held at CSE 1242 on October 8th at 2:30 PM! Engineers for Exploration is a one of a kind program that develops intelligent systems that aid research in conservation, cultural heritage, and exploration. We work closely with archaeologists, biologists, ecologists, and marine scientists to create technologies that aid them in their scientific research. Applications range from determining population counts for endangered animals and studying animal behavior to capturing large-scale ecological data and visualizing archaeological discoveries. Engineers for Exploration centers around student-led teams who tackle the design process from beginning to end, from planning and prototyping various designs, culminating in deploying the system in the field alongside scientists and explorers. This is a unique opportunity to work on a project with real-world impact for our collaborators. This quarter, we are looking for students to join seven different projects, working on topics such as radio tracking pandas and lizards, detecting bird species using machine learning and sound, monitoring sea surface temperature with surfers, and much more! If you are interested, please fill out the application online at https://e4e.ucsd.edu/join. Applications for this quarter should be submitted by October 18th.
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Acoustic Species Project Leads Win HDSI Scholarship
We are excited to announce that two of the project leads from the Acoustic Species Identification Team, Ludwig von Schoenfeldt and Tianqi Zhang, have been awarded the prestigious Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute Undergraduate Scholarship under the mentorship of Dr. Ryan Kastner! Together with Sean Perry, they are leading efforts to develop advanced tools for bioacoustic monitoring. The Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute (HDSI) Undergraduate Scholarship supports innovative, student-led projects that push the boundaries of data science. This scholarship will enable the team to continue their work on exploring transformer-based architectures, new audio representations, and advanced data augmentation techniques. Additionally, they are developing a desktop application for collaborators, including the San Diego Zoo. The team will be presenting their work at the HDSI Scholarship Showcase in the spring. This opportunity allows the team to work closely with mentors and develop data-driven approaches to ecological monitoring. Congratulations to Ludwig, Tianqi, and the entire team for their continued dedication and success!
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Summer 2024 Final Presentations
Thank you to the students who participated in our Summer Research program this year! It was great having you all with us, and we really appreciate your contributions, vibes, and learnings! A huge shout out to the following programs for helping to support our summer researchers: National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Award 2244123 National Science Foundation “Development of a Swarm of Autonomous Subsea Vehicles to Infer Plankton Growth and Transport” project UC San Diego Summer Research Internship Program Matthew Henson Fellowship
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Summer 2024 REU Presentations at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research
Engineers for Exploration’s 2024 Research Engineers for Explorations just wrapped up presenting to our friends and collaborators up at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research in Escondido. Our students shared their projects, current efforts, and results. You can find a link to the presentation below.
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2024 Summer Research Students
This summer, we are hosting 19 students from around the world in our 2024 summer research program at UC San Diego. Meet our students by reading their bios below:
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Latest Smartfin Molds
We’ve just completed the latest modifications to our Smartfin molds, thanks to the UCSD Makerspace located in the Design and Innovation Building at UC San Diego. Enhanced mold pour holes Our team will begin assessing whether these design changes will improve the quality of fins we are able to manufacture from these molds, moving slowly towards low-rate production here at UC San Diego.
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Ronan Wallace Awarded Fulbright for Floods of Lubra
Summer 2021 REU alum and project lead Ronan Wallace has been awarded a Fulbright Research/Study Grant 2024-25 to Nepal for his research project Floods of Lubra. For his Fulbright, he plans to return to Mustang to document flooding impacts through photogrammetric modeling and ethnographic interviewing in communities affected by flooding. As Himalayan flooding grows more acute each year due to the climate crisis, Ronan believes that a lack of documentation of these impacts may result in inadequate adaptation strategies and perpetuate limits in relief funding. By contextualizing 3D models of flood damages and vulnerable heritage structures with first-hand communal experience, he will compile reports for informing local policy, requesting relief aid, and preserving cultural heritage. Establishing his undergraduate research with E4E in 2022, Ronan funded his work through the Jan Serie Research Fellowship from Macalester College and the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship from the School For International Training. He has since published his work Relocating Lubra Village and Visualizing Himalayan Flood Damages with Remote Sensing in the Journal of Critical Global Issues, along with presentations at the Human Development Conference at the University of Notre Dame and the Sustainable AI Conference at the University of Bonn in Germany. He thanks his mentors, friends and family for their unwavering support and is ecstatic to see where this opportunity takes him.
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Spring 2024 Info Session
Engineers for Exploration is a unique research program that develops intelligent systems for research in conservation, cultural heritage, and exploration. We work closely with archaeologists, biologists, ecologists, and marine scientists to create technologies that aid them in their scientific research. Applications range from determining population counts for endangered animals and studying animal behavior to capturing large-scale ecological data and visualizing archaeological discoveries. Engineers for Exploration centers around student-led teams who tackle the design process from beginning to end, from planning and prototyping various designs, culminating in deploying the system in the field alongside scientists and explorers. This is a unique opportunity to work on a project with real-world impact for our collaborators. This quarter, we are looking for students to join several different projects, working on topics such as detecting bird species using machine learning and sound, monitoring sea surface temperature with surfers using custom hardware, and monitoring animals using drones and underwater cameras, and much more! If you enjoy flying drones, making stuff, and learning new things, come see how you might contribute to one of our projects. For more information, please look around our website. If you are interested, please apply at https://e4e.ucsd.edu/join. Applications for Spring quarter should be submitted by April 22. We will also be hosting an informational session on Monday, April 15 at 2 PM in CSE 1242. This will include an opportunity to do one-on-one interviews with the project leads after the informational session, so please bring copies of your resume.
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Engineers for Exploration (E4E) Summer Research Program at UC San Diego - Application Submission by February 15th, 2024
UC San Diego’s Engineers for Exploration Summer Research Program is an NSF REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) Site centered around multidisciplinary and collaborative student research with the broad goals of protecting the environment, uncovering mysteries related to cultural heritage, and providing experiential learning experiences. Our program is a full-time paid research experience from June 24th to August 30th in which students will work in multidisciplinary research teams to aid scientists from the San Diego Zoo, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and UC San Diego in tackling problems in fields such as ecology, physical oceanography, and archeology. During this program, students will create and apply technologies in novel ways to aid scientists in their work, and may have opportunities to accompany these technologies on field deployments around the world. Through these projects, students can expect to learn about embedded systems and software, machine learning, electronics integration, mechanical design, system building, as well as project management and team leadership. For more information, please visit our website at https://e4e.ucsd.edu. Applications are currently being accepted at https://e4e.ucsd.edu/apply through February 15. Applications will continue to be accepted through March 30 if positions are not yet filled. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to contact me at nthui@ucsd.edu.
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Fall 2023 Info Session
Info session will be held at CSE 1242 on October 10th at 4 PM! Engineers for Exploration is a one of a kind program that develops intelligent systems that aid research in conservation, cultural heritage, and exploration. We work closely with archaeologists, biologists, ecologists, and marine scientists to create technologies that aid them in their scientific research. Applications range from determining population counts for endangered animals and studying animal behavior to capturing large-scale ecological data and visualizing archaeological discoveries. Engineers for Exploration centers around student-led teams who tackle the design process from beginning to end, from planning and prototyping various designs, culminating in deploying the system in the field alongside scientists and explorers. This is a unique opportunity to work on a project with real-world impact for our collaborators. This quarter, we are looking for students to join seven different projects, working on topics such as radio tracking pandas and lizards, detecting bird species using machine learning and sound, monitoring sea surface temperature with surfers, and much more! If you are interested, please fill out the application online at https://e4e.ucsd.edu/join. Applications for this quarter close on October 15th at 6 PM.
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Summer 2023 Final Presentations
Thank you to the students who participated in our Summer Research program this year! It was great having you all with us, and we really appreciate your contributions, vibes, and learnings! A huge shout out to the following programs for helping to support our summer researchers: National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Award 2244123 National Science Foundation “Development of a Swarm of Autonomous Subsea Vehicles to Infer Plankton Growth and Transport” project UC San Diego Summer Research Internship Program Matthew Henson Fellowship
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