General Narrative

This joint proposal between graduate students Elizabeth Tapanes and Stephen McPhee seeks funding to purchase a new Apple desktop computer powerful enough to handle video and photo editing, a high quality color photo printer, Adobe Creative Suite 6 software, a digital SLR camera, and a year long student subscription to Raven Audio Analysis software to conduct new primate research projects in the Molecular Primatology and Behavioral Ecology Lab, Boca Raton campus. The Molecular Primatology Lab (SC 253) is a new lab housed in the Biological Sciences Department and has great potential for offering research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students in the Anthropology and Biological Sciences Departments. At this time, the most critical need for the lab is obtaining equipment to meet the research needs of projects that are underway. With the addition of the equipment requested, the lab’s research projects can expand to include ecological monitoring in Lomami National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo and primate hybridization in Gombe National Park, Tanzania.

Currently this lab lacks quality, research grade, computing equipment to meet the needs of all students working and volunteering in the lab. The lab currently has two research computers, one dedicated to genetic data and bioinformatics, and the second to GIS projects, database entry and queries, and parasitic microscopy work. In addition to operational hardware, two new software packages are necessary to execute research projects currently underway. A digital SLR is a requirement to bring high quality photos from the field to analyze in the lab, with the assistance of requested software. The purchase of this equipment will benefit undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty.  Funding of this proposal will allow students the opportunity to conduct Directed Independent Study research projects that focus on technology and open doors to new learning environments outside of the classroom. 

Finally, the equipment and software requested would allow students to maximize the research potential from projects that are currently underway.  The new equipment would be used in assessing vulnerable primate species living in African rainforest ecosystems, including bonobos, a species of endangered great apes and the newly described monkey species Cercopithecus lomamiensis. The video and audio recordings of the new monkey have already been obtained by Steven McPhee, a graduate student working in the lab during his Fall 2013 research trip to the DR Congo.  The equipment requested would be immediately put to use in the analysis of the large quantity of data collected by this project.  Also, the requested equipment will be key in the analysis of phenotypic differences photographed in primates in Gombe National Park, Tanzania.  To accurately match a phenotype to a genotype, this lab aims to apply previously established color analysis towards arboreal and hybrid primates for the first time. This requires the use of Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 6. The primate projects have already proven to yield publishable findings with the lab’s princial investigator, Dr. Kate Detwiler.  The lab is currently planning a new research trip to Gombe in the summer of 2014. This trip will yield a high quantity of photos for color analysis, and generate research material for undergraduate and graduate DIS and thesis projects. The analysis of the data collected will rely heavily on purchasing the equipment and software requested.   The funding of this proposal will achieve the goal of providing research opportunities to students and faculty that will lead to scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals; as well as supplying a useful teaching tool that will motivate introductory level students to further their education in biological anthropology and help prepare them for careers in biological research labs. 

How Is This Project Aligned with the Strategic Plan? 

Goal 1: Providing Increased Access to Higher Education

The funding of this lab equipment will provide the opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students in the Anthropology Department & Biology Department to engage in DIS projects relating to the use of technology in modern primatology, ecology, biological, and anthropological studies.  Anthropology faculty and graduate teaching assistants will be able to enhance laboratory-learning experiences of students about primate behavioral ecology via the use of a research grade computer, high quality camera, and software for video and photo processing. The computer will act as a teaching tool on which to train students in the use of video and photo processing software that are crucial in the analysis of scientific data collected from modern, non-invasive, ecological monitoring techniques. Such “hands on” educational experiences help engage first time college students in coursework by enabling them to see “real world” applications of methods described in their textbooks. A computer system dedicated to the projects will help students learn how to organize, store, and analyze photo and video data to address research questions. The expansion of capacity in video and photo processing, coupled with statistical analysis tools will create a readily available resource for further research, and provide secure, long-term storage for all data collected in the ongoing research projects of the lab. The addition of a digital SLR allows for processing high quality photos post-production, thus yielding higher quality data and publications.

Goal 2: Meeting Statewide Professional and Workforce Needs

The equipment that this grant proposes to purchase will be utilized to instill both undergraduate and graduate students with the use of technology in modern ecological monitoring. A level of computer proficiency and use of photo, video and audio processing software is necessary in order to become proficient in techniques and methodology of ecological research. This process often involves trial and error, and finding skills that work best in a given situation, but might not work as well in another situation. The experience to know which skills to use and how best to apply them to a particular problem can come only from repeated practical application and exposure to various, analytical techniques available. These skills are only gained with access to appropriate computer power, and cutting edge analysis software. Practical experience is becoming increasingly critical to being a competitive applicant in the workforce. Employers are looking for candidates that possess educational qualifications coupled with actual experiences conducting research, collecting data and analyzing their findings. This lab equipment will achieve the goal of helping to prepare students for the demands they will find in a diverse array of laboratory settings, including: conservation, ecology, and the environmental sciences.

Goal 3: Building World-Class Academic Programs and Research Capacity

The use of technology in primate research is becoming increasingly important, especially given the modern emphasis on the use of non-invasive techniques. Ecological monitoring of endangered and vulnerable nonhuman primates can give insight into abundance, behavior and the conservation of these species. By studying how these species behave and interact in the wild sheds light on not only the lives and history of these specific primates, but also on our own evolutionary origins.  Non-invasive ecological monitoring techniques that utilize new technology to better answer traditional questions also inform studies of demography, social dynamics and cross-species reproduction in nonhuman primates. The questions that are answered in these studies cross disciplinary boundaries and shed light on these little studied primates.  By analyzing the data with an emphasis on an integrative and comparative approach, insights can be gained about ecology, conservation and evolutionary processes. 

By expanding the Molecular Primatology lab’s technological capability, students and faculty will be given the opportunity to diversify and expand their research. This will help strengthen the lab’s position in competing for external research funds from National Science Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Services Africa Programs, and NIH Non-Human Primate Programs. In addition, the associated software requested will be used by lab members to create clear and compelling informatics, diagrams and visuals for publications in scientific journals and presentations at conferences. The lab currently lacks software to do this. The equipment requested will ensure that no matter what area of study is undertaken, the framework will be in place for the success of the lab’s objectives.  

Goal 5: Building a State-of-the-Art Information Technology Environment

This request includes funds for a computer, which will store and analyze video, photo and audio data, a key requirement in modern primatological and wildlife studies. The inclusion of a high quality color photo printer will increase the lab’s ability to assess phenotypic differences between individuals and better identify individuals for capture-mark-recapture statistical analysis. The digital SLR requested is imperative to establishing a long-term study that couples phenotype to genotype in a primate population with highly diverse coloration and patterns. The camera will be thus becomes part of the lab’s inventory to use in multiple projects over multiple years, and is closely integrated with software and hardware requested. Adobe and Raven audio analysis software are both considered to be on the cutting edge of video, photo and audio processing.

The inclusion of this software will allow for a more in-depth and comprehensive analysis for graduate research projects that are currently underway, which both support undergraduate DIS and volunteer researchers.

Goal 7: Increasing the University’s Visibility

Undergraduate students participating in primatology projects will generate original findings on their topics of interest, making them eligible to submit research papers to the Undergraduate Research Journal at Florida Atlantic University.  This online journal will showcase research topics being explored at FAU, and thus increases the visibility of the University. Undergraduates will also be encouraged to publish findings in national and international journals with the guidance of graduate students. These findings will come from populations of primates that are not well known, and therefore submissions for publications will have a high chance of acceptance. Moreover, graduate student research projects are posted on the Anthropology department’s website. This increases the exposure of any primatology research done within the department, and in turn increases the university’s visibility. The equipment requested will be used for original research projects, which will then serve as data for journal articles as well as presentation topics at upcoming anthropology association meetings, and primatology meetings (at both national and international levels), thus highly increasing the visibility of the university.

The September 2012 announcement of the newly discovered monkey species, lesula, co-discovered by FAU professor Dr. Kate Detwiler, definitively showed that interest in this new primate species extended not only to the scientific community, but also to the general population at large.  The announcement, published in the academic journal PLOS ONE, was also picked up and broadcast by almost every major news outlet in the world and was a top trending topic on Yahoo for days after the announcement.  Seven months later, lesula was again pushed into the national stage by its listing on ASU’s top ten new species discoveries of 2013. 

The Lesula Project has continued to generate excitement both within FAU and the larger scientific community.  Several major and minor grants were awarded for execution of FAU graduate student Steven McPhee’s fall 2013 research trip to the DR Congo. 

$2803.00– 27” iMac Computer, 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, 3 TB solid fusion drive, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM

$80.00 - Lock for Computer 

$15.00 - Cat6 10' Network Cable for Computer

$35.00 - Surge Protector for Computer 

$219.00 - HP CN503A - Photosmart Premium C310a Wireless All-in-One Inkjet Printer, Copy/Print/Scan (From Amazon.com - original retail price of $240.00)

$1,098.00 – Sony Alpha SLT-A77 Translucent Mirror Digital SLR Camera with 18-135mm Lens

$0.00 Shipping

$0.00 Tax

Total (without expected 1-2% price inflation) – $4,260.00

Total (with expected 1-2% price inflation by date of dispersed funds of April-May) -  $4340.00

$400.00 – Creative Suite 6 Design and Web Premium Student and Teacher Edition (FAU license fee)

$100.00 - Raven Pro Student License (Good for one year and free renewal as long as the student is still enrolled in school)

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$0.00 Tax

Total – $500.00

Purchase orders will be submitted as soon as funds are allocated and research will begin.  

The Molecular Anthropology Laboratory hosted by the Anthropology Department and Biological Sciences Department will implement the project.