Full Title: Partner-driven Environmental Sensing: Co-design with Indigenous Ojibwe Scientists and Malagasy Conservationists

Abstract:

Evolving environmental sensing technologies present a myriad of opportunities for gathering data to understand and promote environmental justice, biodiversity, and climate change mitigation. However, technical development from academic and commercial settings often struggle to translate to accessible solutions for marginalized communities. In this talk, I will explore the opportunities of partner-driven co-design, share the findings from a qualitative study of field scientists’ use of technology, and present two case studies: (1) designing environmental sensors with Indigenous Ojibwe scientists for manoomin (wild rice) conservation and (2) partnering with Malagasy conservation organizations to understand the role that technology can play in reforestation and biodiversity monitoring.

Bio:

Eric Greenlee (he/him) is a PhD student in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, co-advised by Ellen Zegura and Josiah Hester. Conducting research at the intersection of the Computing and Society Lab and the Ka Moamoa Lab, Eric explores partner-driven processes with communities often cut out of technology development to co-create emergent environmental sensors to address challenges in environmental justice, biodiversity loss, and climate change mitigation. By leveraging qualitative methods, he aims to strengthen connections across traditional silos to design and deploy user-friendly, networked, and low-power embedded systems. Prior to pursuing his PhD, Eric worked as a Radio Frequency engineer for the U.S. Federal Government and studied electrical engineering at Dartmouth College.