Out Of The Box And Into The Cloud: Strategic Planning at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project serves the national interest by helping to develop new tools for conducting and communicating science both nationally and internationally, by building collaborations between the technology and the academic research communities at local through global scales, and by training students about to enter the workforce in cutting-edge technology, biological research, and their interfaces with societal needs. The project is to conduct a planning effort for emplacing infrastructural improvements to Jasper Ridge Biological Station at Stanford University (http://jrbp.stanford.edu/). The vision is to add to Jasper Ridge Biological Field Station's research capabilities by repurposing the current maintenance yard into a place to design and install "pop-up field-station facilities" that can be feasibly replicated at low cost in remote locations. The pop-up facilities will be environmentally friendly, making use of re-purposed and local materials, and self-sufficient for energy, water purification, and waste treatment. Their "out-of-the-box" design will be adaptable for use in strikingly different geographic and cultural settings. The concept is to provide a diverse variety of field stations with the capacity to employ cutting-edge and emerging technology in order to acquire and send data to the cloud for collaborative analyses with those who may live on opposite sides of the world. The scientific rationale is that developing such networking capacity is a prerequisite to attacking local-to-global scale research questions that are not easily explored in isolation, using techniques such as genomic analyses, automation of labor-intensive camera-trapping, drones, remote sensing and mapping, and collaborative analyses. It has been particularly difficult to employ these emerging technologies in field stations that are in remote locations, but it is necessary to do so in order to effectively understand how best to accommodate growing societal needs while still maintaining the biologically-based life-support systems upon which people depend. The project focuses on building capacity and common research agendas among a broad spectrum of biological field stations, from regional partners to those in developing countries. The intent is to not only enhance the science that can feasibly be performed at field stations in diverse settings, but also to provide hands-on training in cutting-edge energy systems, biological research, and collaborative approaches for students and other participants. Scientists, technology advisors, students, potential funders, and other stakeholders will be convened to plan the pop-up facilities and the coordinated research for which they are being developed. Important applications range from tracking biodiversity, to understanding the distribution and function of microbiota, to mapping how species use the landscape and how to most effectively manage them. The planning will include a three-day workshop at Stanford University's Jasper Ridge field station, as well as a series of meetings that will transpire through a year. The outcome will be the roadmap needed to prototype the new pop-up field-facility approach at Jasper Ridge within three years, and emplace similar capacity in remote field stations within five years. The environmentally-friendly, low-cost infrastructure solutions that will be planned in this effort will be of use not only to field stations, but to a variety of stakeholder applications in off-grid locations. Training opportunities will be enhanced for students from both developed and developing countries to learn from diverse faculty, entrepreneurs, and from each other - both scientifically and culturally - in field-related settings, recognized to be one of the most effective and influential learning environments.