\u2018AI Into the Wild at Jasper Ridge\u2019 brought students, Distinguished Career Institute (DCI) Fellows and Stanford affiliates to Jasper Ridge the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 24 to learn more about the preserve, wildlife monitoring technology and the wildlife conservation applications of AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve sits<\/a> about five miles off campus. Its nearly 1,200 acres of land serve as a refuge for native plants and animals, a natural laboratory for researchers and a site for docent-led tours.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition to a wonderful natural setting, Jasper Ridge supports staff, facilities, classes, internships, equipment and data sets that are often integral to the success of student projects here,\u201d Trevor H\u00e9bert, Jasper Ridge\u2019s academic technology specialist, wrote to The Daily.<\/p>\n Alice Heiman \u201927, one of the event organizers, aimed to bring Stanford affiliates to the preserve while showing the positive ways AI can be utilized for the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re saying, \u2018Can we use this technology to help us try and understand the real world better?\u2019\u201d Heiman said.<\/p>\n According to Katie Glover, Jasper Ridge\u2019s associate director of environmental education, although math and computer science students often visit the preserve as part of class visits or STEM programs, many students never learn how technology can be applied to monitoring and understanding the natural world.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Friday, participants chose between guided hikes led by Glover or H\u00e9bert. Glover\u2019s tour emphasized the biotic diversity of the preserve, while H\u00e9bert focused<\/a> on the Jasper Ridge Global Change Experiment, highlighting wildlife cameras and monitoring technologies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following the hike, participants collaborated in small groups to brainstorm applications of AI in wildlife and biodiversity conservation. The brainstorming session was led by Andr\u00e9s Adolfo Hern\u00e1ndez Celis, a graduate student at Universidad de los Andes in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia and an applied research scientist at the Microsoft AI for Good Lab.\u00a0<\/p>\n