Computer-Powered Citizen Science

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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Working together, humans and computers can do great things. Humans and computers are safeguarding ecosystems, predicting hazards, and diagnosing and treating deadly diseases. Here are just a few of our favorite human computer partnerships that welcome your participation.

Cheers,
The SciStarter Team

Image by Abhas Misraraj, California Academy of Sciences

Seek by iNaturalist is a mobile tool that does a remarkable job of identifying any organism, using powerful computer vision algorithms fueled by photos and identifications made by the global iNaturalist community. Simply download the app and start exploring plants and animals, earning badges and, optionally, sharing what you find back to the project to improve the algorithm!

Location: Global

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With the help of citizen scientists, the Stall Catchers project now has three research papers being completed for publication, all focused on new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. But there’s so much more to discover, and Stall Catchers is already pioneering new machine learning techniques in combination with the analysis of citizen scientists like you. Put your brainpower to work fighting a leading cause of death and disability!

Location: Online

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Help scientists study the evolution and function of DNA, RNA and protein sequences by optimizing genetic multiple sequence alignments, or MSAs. Fortunately for non-geneticists, the Phylo project abstracts the data into colored shapes and presents them in a game-like interface that anyone can play!

Location: Online

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Image by Wildbook for WhaleSharks

Wildbook blends structured wildlife research with artificial intelligence, citizen science and computer vision to speed population analysis and develop new insights to help fight extinction. The project identifies and tracks individual animals (such as whale sharks) using photos submitted by citizen scientists.

Location: Online

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Your activity on Space Fortress will help researchers learn about learning: how players preserve their gaming skills after periods of non-use. The results will be used for developing a model for optimising training regimens for professionals across different industries, so that lessons will be provided just in time: not too early, not too late.

Location: Online

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The Museum of Life + Science of Durham, NC is participating in the Citizen Science, Civics and Resilient Communities project with support from NOAA (SciStarter is a proud partner!). Join them for “Climate-Conscious Durham “– an attempt to promote dialogue, build resilience and empower understanding and engagement on climate-related issues in North Carolina. Explore the Museum of Life + Science’s page on SciStarter and sign up to attend a forum and a webinar about these topics on zoom.

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The Museum of Science, Boston has an upcoming event with SciStarter that uses citizen science to investigate big problems: a webinar about sea-level rise (September 29). All are welcome! Check out the Museum of Science’s page on SciStarter to sign up for this event and to explore featured citizen science projects addressing climate hazards.

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Register for this event for an introduction to citizen science, to hear about libraries as hubs for citizen science, to learn about the All of Us Research program, and to discover how to participate in the Stall Catchers citizen science project through a presentation and online Q&A.

Get Started!

Image by Wild Sourdough Project

Looking for a science project to do with kids? These experiments go beyond the trivial and incorporate real-world scientific research. Discover them on the SciStarter blog.

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Discover more citizen science on the SciStarter calendar. Did you know your SciStarter dashboard helps you track your contributions to projects? Complete your profile to access free tools. Want even more citizen science? Check out SciStarter’s Project Finder! With citizen science projects spanning every field of research, task and age group, there’s something for everyone!

New on the Blogs

New (Beta) Feature from SciStarter: “Lists” Makes it Easy to Organize, Share and Track Engagement in Citizen Science Projects, via the SciStarter Blog

These Citizen Science Projects Help Researchers Track Climate Change Hazards, via Discover Magazine

Help NASA Find Out How Planets Form, via Science Connected

Categories: Citizen Science, Computers & Technology, Newsletter

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About the Author

Bob Hirshon

Bob Hirshon

Bob Hirshon heads up Springtail Media, specializing in science media and digital entertainment. He is Principal Investigator for the NSF-supported National Park Science Challenge, an augmented reality adventure that takes place in National Parks. Hirshon headed up the Kinetic City family of science projects, including the Peabody Award winning children’s radio drama Kinetic City Super Crew, McGraw-Hill book series and Codie Award winning website and education program. Hirshon can be heard on XM/Sirius Radio’s Kids Place Live as “Bob the Science Slob”, sharing science news and answering children’s questions. At SciStarter, Bob edits the Citizen Science Podcast.