Two students of the Engineers for Exploration research group, Ameya Singh and Katie Miyamoto, were awarded with the Halicioglu Data Science Institute Undergraduate Scholarship for the purpose of supporting their educational and research activities. In collaboration with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, the goal of the Aye-Aye Sleep Monitoring project is to determine variations in the sleeping patterns of the Daubentonia madagascariensis species through the analysis of video, audio and IMU data collected through the continuous monitoring of the aye-aye enclosures.

In order to quantify the state of sleep, we use the inertial and acoustic sensors on the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense, an IR Raspberry Pi Camera, and an IP Camera to produce a stream of data which is then labeled as either sleeping well, not sleeping well, or not sleeping. This system is housed in boxes attached to the enclosures where the aye-ayes sleep. The data collected through these various sources is then streamed to a remote data server. For Winter quarter 2021, we plan on having the sensor network generating and sending data to the lab through the data server for storage and analysis. Once collected, this data stream will be used to define the state of sleep, and the information will be passed onto ecologists for further examination and analysis.