High-Tech Wildlife Tracking Center to Open at UW

A new center focused on using technology and high-performance computing to track animal movements will launch this month at the University of Wyoming.

An event marking the launch of the WyldTech Center is set for 5-7 p.m. Monday, April 22, in the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center auditorium and atrium. Everyone is welcome to learn about the center and how to become an affiliate, and to meet others on campus working at the nexus of wildlife ecology, technology and computing. Appetizers will be provided, along with a cash bar.

The WyldTech Center aims to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations across campus to address this core question: “How can new approaches to animal bio-logging, environmental informatics and computational workflows advance the management and conservation of Wyoming’s diverse wildlife?”

From bees to bison, animals must move across complex landscapes to survive. Such movement can happen in the course of a day on a single plant or in response to seasons for continental-scale migrations. Regardless of scale, how internal cues, other animals and landscape characteristics, including temperature, water and food, mediate movement is largely unknown for most animals.

The WyldTech Center harnesses new technology and high-performance computing while capitalizing on ongoing projects and existing data to characterize landscapes and track animals to facilitate human-animal coexistence in a changing world.

“If your current or planned work aligns with these or related ideas, please attend,” say the organizers. “Our goal is to create an inclusive space supporting productive interdisciplinary collaborations that truly advance the frontiers of knowledge.”

Members of the WyldTech Center steering committee are Michael Dillon, a professor in the Department of Zoology and Physiology; Di Yang, an assistant professor in the School of Computing; Kevin Monteith, a professor in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources; Dane Taylor, an assistant professor in the School of Computing; Melanie Murphy, a professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management; Suresh Muknahallipatna, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Matt Kauffman, unit leader of the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; and Ben Koger, an assistant professor in the School of Computing.