Project Details

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Under a Rock: Insect Identification Mobile App for Outreach and Education

Company: PSU Mechanical Engineering Environmental and Biological Fluid Mechanics Lab

Major(s):
Primary: CMPSC
Secondary: ED

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Students will develop a mobile application to help users identify and learn about freshwater macroinvertebrates (insects and other organisms) that inhabit local central PA ponds and streams. Users should be able to upload a photo of an observed organism, answer a few questions, and receive some information about what the organism is (ideally at genus level) along with information about its habitat, behavior, and ecological niche. The target audience is community members interested in the outdoors (all ages) and other special topics (e.g. those interested in fly fishing). End users may include visitors to Millbrook Marsh and Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. Students are welcome to explore new machine learning approaches or use existing open-source code (e.g. from the popular app iNaturalist). Students will collaborate with Dr. Margaret Byron, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering, in putting together descriptions of insect behavior and biomechanics. NOTE: Dr. Byron will provide advising on the content to be hosted on the app, but cannot provide advising on the coding of the app itself. Students involved in the project should have prior experience in this area or should be interested in learning. Deliverables include: 1) A mockup of the app and organization/flowchart of its operation (early in the project) and 2) a prototype of the app that can be used by community members and updated easily by staff at Millbrook Marsh and Shaver’s Creek (final deliverable). Intermediate deliverables will be worked out between the team and Dr. Byron.