Interspecies Data Collection and Interaction: The Data Logger Project
with Neil Gershenfeld, Eric Pan, Jeff Reed, Patrick Chwalek,
Cat Hobaiter, Joris Komen, Leo Trottier
23 August 2025, 16:00 GMT/ 12:00 EST/ 09:00 PST
Interspecies Data Collection and Interaction: The Data Logger Project
Instead of our usual lecture format, this session will be a roundtable exploring an innovative approach to wildlife data collection.
Rather than independent groups building data-logging tools for various species separately (e.g., wolves, chimpanzees, dogs, prairie dogs, elephants, whales, and dolphins), this team is exploring the collaborative development of an open-source modular technology base for multispecies data-logging, analysis, and interaction.
This effort is focused on a modular, integrated architecture for collecting and logging sensor data (audio, movement, environmental variables) that can be adapted to different species and environments (land, aquatic), in contrast with siloed, species-specific tool development. These tools would not only support the needs of field biologists gathering and analyzing data, but also aim to enable active interaction, and help monitor wildlife behaviour, detect poaching, mitigate human-wildlife-livestock conflict, and inform conservation decision-making.
Come ready to engage, ask questions, and contribute to the conversation about the future of multispecies research technology!
About the Team
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Prof. Neil Gershenfeld is the Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, where his unique laboratory is breaking down boundaries between the digital and physical worlds, from pioneering quantum computing to digital fabrication to the Internet of Things. He has been elected a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Physical Society, has been named one of Scientific American's 50 leaders in science and technology, as one of 40 Modern-Day Leonardos by the Museum of Science and Industry, one of Popular Mechanic's 25 Makers, has been selected as a CNN/Time/Fortune Principal Voice, and by Prospect/Foreign Policy as one of the top 100 public intellectuals. He's the founder of a global network of over 2500 fab labs in 150 countries, chairs the Fab Foundation, and leads the Fab Academy.
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Eric Pan is the founder and CEO of Seeed Studio, a leading open hardware company that provides reference designs and supply chain services for millions of global developers since 2008. He was selected as one of Forbes China's 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs for his support of grassroots technology innovation. Currently, he focuses on developing physical AI devices that utilize real-world data and pervasive machine learning capabilities. He has also established Chaihuo maker-space in Shenzhen and has curated Maker Faire Shenzhen since 2012. He has actively contributed to the global maker movement and fablab network, making hardware accessible for everyone to build solutions for their communities.
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Jeffrey Reed is a computational linguist and naturalist researching animal communication—from the long howl of a wolf to the haunting bugle of an elk—using AI-powered tools forged deep in the mountains of Montana, where he was born. Jeff's latest venture Grizzly Systems is reimagining how to protect and promote the world's last wild places using battery-operated surveillance devices. Jeff founded The Cry Wolf Project, a large-scale bioacoustics study of wolf communication in the Greater Yellowstone area. Active in conservation, he co-founded Wild Livelihoods Business Coalition and works to protect wild soundscapes and share them with others. He is finishing a book on wolf communication, due out in 2026.
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Patrick Chwalek is a PhD candidate in the MIT Media Lab who specializes in designing and deploying novel, multi-modal sensing systems to generate new insights into animal and human life. While his work includes developing platforms like the AirSpecs smart-eyeglasses for human comfort research, his primary focus is on wildlife conservation. A significant portion of his work is dedicated to creating field-ready platforms that address critical bottlenecks in ecological monitoring, often in collaboration with the National Geographic Society. He architected BuzzCam, an end-to-end pipeline for on-device AI classification of endangered and invasive bee species, which was honored as a Fast Company World Changing Idea in 2025. This system was developed and deployed in Patagonia with National Geographic Explorers to create a foundational acoustic dataset for monitoring endangered pollinators. He also engineered CollarID, a versatile, low-power biologging platform designed to provide a holistic understanding of wildlife behavior beyond location-only data. He is currently deploying and validating these systems on diverse wildlife, including lions, hyenas, and wild dogs.
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Cat is a field primatologist who has spent the past 20-years living with and studying wild primates across Africa. She is a Reader in Origins of Mind at the University of St Andrews and PI of the Wild Minds Lab. She still spends around half the year in the field, and heads a team of researchers exploring wild ape behavior. Her work explores what the communication of wild apes living in their natural environment tells us about how they think and the origins of our own behavior. She leads ape field sites in Uganda and Guinea and serves on expert groups for the UN and IUCN. Outside of work you usually find her up a mountain, or pottering in a shed with coffee.
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Joris Komen is PhD candidate in the Design and Computation Group at MIT. He is the founder of humaneLABS, a design research practice exploring the intersection of technology, ecology, and the built environment. Joris is also the founder of AiAi, the African Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a thinktank that focuses on the development and deployment of AI models in the African context. His work focuses on species-specific design, combining AI, 3D pose estimation, and geospatial analysis to better understand and support wildlife in a rapidly urbanizing world. Through projects like AniVis, he develops computational tools for analyzing animal fine-grain movement and behavior - particularly in elephants - using synchronized 2D/3D tracking, behavior classification, and spatial modeling. Joris also contributes to real-time deforestation monitoring in the Amazon through DEFORA, applying computer vision and satellite data to detect small-scale environmental change. His interdisciplinary practice blends architecture, conservation, and computation to reimagine how we design with, and for, other species.
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Trottier is a blend of cognitive scientist and entrepreneur. His company combines community and scientific collaboration with carefully designed communication tools to help humanity realize the potential of the animals with whom we share this planet. He started FluentPet as a PhD candidate at UC San Diego.
