Archive of posts from 2016

  • 2017 REU Application Now Available!

    Posted on Dec 9, 2016

    featured image We are now taking applications for our 2017 summer REU! If you are interested in spending the summer in San Diego working on impactful engineering projects and exciting fieldwork, please apply to be considered for our summer REU program. Go to e4e.ucsd.edu/apply to submit your application. Last year, ten students from universities across the US and Brazil worked on projects including embedded systems for underwater camera traps, path planning for aerial vehicles, coral reef classification, a...

  • Coral Reef Classification: 2016 REU

    Posted on Oct 16, 2016

    featured image Coral reefs are large, diverse, and extremely important ecosystems spread throughout the world’s oceans. Unfortunately, in the past year a significant portion of this ecosystem is suffering in recent years, heavily due to rising ocean temperatures. Over 90% of the northern Great Barrier reef is bleached and over 20% has died. Bleaching is when the coral releases its symbiotic algae used for food. Ecologists are interested in using high resolution spatial and temporal data to further determine...

  • 3D Visualization Rig for Imaging Underwater Lemur Graveyards: 2016 REU

    Posted on Sep 30, 2016

    featured image A mysterious graveyard of giant lemur fossils has been found in the underwater Aven Cave in Madagascar. The Stereo-Imaging Diving Rig Project is a collaboration between E4E and the team of scientists and National Geographic grantees to study this discovery. Phillip Lehmen, of the Dominican Republic Speleological Society, and Alfred Rosenberger from Brooklyn College lead a team of anthropologists and paleontologists examining this site. The skeletons range from 200 to 5,000 years old, with som...

  • SphereCam for Marine Monitoring: 2016 REU

    Posted on Sep 20, 2016

    featured image Vaquita marina is a critically-endangered porpoise endemic to the northern gulf of California, between the fishing villages of San Felipe and El Golfo de Santa Clara. First discovered in 1958, the population has rapidly declined over the last few decades due to poaching and bycatch in gillnets used by local fisheries. As of mid-2016, it is estimated that there are less than 60 individuals left in the wild, and due to their secretive nature, the only pictures that exist are either from far awa...

  • Machine Learning for Humpback Whale Social Call Classification: 2016 REU

    Posted on Sep 3, 2016

    featured image Bioacoustics lies in the intersection of biology and acoustics – it is the study of wildlife and ecosystems through an analysis of the acoustic environment. On a broad scale, audio recordings can inform scientists about the species present in a region as well as about their abundance, which is very valuable for conservation efforts. On a closer look, it may allow scientists to study specific individuals, and even the different types of calls and sounds that individuals produce. This is a very...

  • Airborne Radio Collar Tracking: 2016 REU

    Posted on Aug 29, 2016

    featured image The Radio Collar Tracker project is a collaboration between the San Diego Zoo’s Beckman Institute for Conservation Research (ICR) and UC San Diego’s Engineers For Exploration. We have been working with the ICR and its collaborators for the past four years to develop a drone to conduct radio collar tracking missions. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to develop a drone capable of autonomously tracking radio collared animals, particularly through environments that are difficult to access....

  • E4E 2016 Summer REU

    Posted on Aug 11, 2016

    featured image This summer we are hosting 12 students from all around the USA, Brazil, and China, as part of our the 2016 summer REU program. Our students are working on a diverse array of projects, including development of a new underwater 3d visualization system, dynamic path planning for aerial robots, robust 3D coverage estimation, the aerial radio collar tracker, machine learning for bioacoustics, and 3D reconstruction for archaeological surveys. Title Photo from San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservati...

  • Summer 2016 REU Application Closing Soon

    Posted on Jan 29, 2016

    featured image If you’re interested in joining us for our REU program this summer, the application is due February 15. We’ve posted about the projects from our past REUs, so feel free to look around our website for more on what we do.