Ask HN: How do I help wildlife conservation and ecology with tech?

2 points by hbornfree 5y ago ↗ HN

In my professional career spanning roughly a decade, I have been a developer, product manager and a co-founder at small startups.

While I have not made a truckload of money, I have made enough to afford a decent living. More importantly I have realized that accumulating more barely moves my happiness-meter.

So I'm looking into areas that I have always loved but haven't really contributed to. Wildlife conservation, oceans and general ecology. And TBH I am clueless where to start looking. Do I get an internship at a research lab, work at a zoo, document flora and fauna?

I have recently started course material that is used for master programmes in universities, but that is to build a fudamental understanding of the space. Any advice/feedback/links would be really appreciated.

From the professional career, I have these skills that I think maybe relevant: - Image processing - Natural language processing - Neural networks, ML etc (would rate self 3/5) - Web dev

I also have love for maps and outdoors if that matters.

Thank you in advance.

4 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 16.5 ms ] thread

warrenm 5y ago ↗

I can think of several things off the top of my head:

- go work for a group like WWF - work on "outdoors" apps (hunting, hiking, trail-riding, etc) - build website(s)/app(s) that help conservation groups, folks interested in wildlife, etc find places to sight-see, get involved in local activities, etc - work for a group that does educational outreach (eg your local cooperative extension office)

I bet some of the other smarter folks hereon can suggest another 100 or more ways you could "help wildlife conservation and ecology with tech" :)

hbornfree 5y ago ↗

Thanks for the suggestions @warrenm.

While I understand the importance of climate awareness and community building, I'm afraid that isn't where I shine.

Anything more technical, maybe in the fields of camera-traps, drone deployment, remote-sensing, satellite imagery, GIS, data analysis/viz etc may be a better fit. Trying to look for a way to get started in these.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply. Really appreciate it!

pcdoodle 5y ago ↗

I'm interested in developing a product to increase farm animals quality of life. Does this resonate with you? I develop PCBs for IOT type stuff. ML could translate into detecting sick animals, falling, coughing, eating habits, etc. ML is not my strong point.

hbornfree 5y ago ↗

This does resonate with me!

Happy to discuss and help you where possible. How can I reach out to you? Or maybe you can send me a 'hi' at harsha.xg{at}gmail.com?