Proposal

Name:

Acquisition of remote sensing equipment for interdisciplinary primatology lab

FiscalYear:

2015

Audience:

Arts & Letters, College of

Submitter:

Detwiler, Kate

Budget Manager:

Dimaggio, Kathleen M.

Project Manager:

Detwiler, Kate Madeleine

Proposal Approvers

Dept. Chair:

Harris, Michael S

Local IT:

Topple, Gregory L.

Dean:

Johnson, Linda K.

Facilities:

N/A

OIT:

Bagdonas, Joseph A.

Proposal Funding

Year 1:

$ 16,995.63

Year 2:

$ 0.00

Year 3:

$ 0.00

Total:

$ 16,995.63

Proposal Funding versus Average

Questionnaire

Narrative

Acquisition of remote sensing equipment for interdisciplinary primatology lab

This tech fee proposal is to purchase remote sensing equipment and accompanying computer workstations to support undergraduate and graduate student learning and research in wildlife remote sensing technologies. The remote sensing equipment will be deployed in West Lake Park in Broward County by the FAU Primatology Lab—an interdisciplinary research lab between the Anthropology Department in the College of Arts and Letters and the Biology Department and Environmental Sciences Program in the College of Science. The lab has recently launched a new project, the Dania Beach Vervet Project, to study the established population of introduced vervet monkeys living in West Lake Park, Broward County. The Fort Lauderdale-Dania Beach urban communities have considered the introduced vervet monkey population a cultural treasure for decades, yet there is no scientific monitoring of the population or management plan developed to intervene humanely when conflict arises between monkeys and humans. The FAU Primatology Lab represents the first academic initiative to develop a longitudinal research study on the population. The lab’s PI Kate Detwiler, and her PhD student Deborah Williams have acquired the necessary research permissions from FAU, Broward County Park’s Authority and the Florida Wildlife Commission to study and monitor the monkey population. Financial support is requested to purchase remote sensing equipment (infrared motion detection cameras, GIS devices, and remote bioacoustics monitoring systems), in addition to two computers (one field laptop for data collection, and one desktop workstation for data storage, processing and analysis).

This tech fee proposal meets the pillars and platforms of FAU’s 2015-2015 Strategic Plan directly by providing new learning and research opportunities in remote sensing and automation technologies, as well as training in metadata storage, processing and analysis for undergraduate students from multiple departments and two colleges across the Boca Raton campus. Undergraduate students participating in the Primatology Lab for DIS credit or as volunteer interns are currently from the Departments of Anthropology, Biology, Psychology, as well as FAU High School and FAU’s undergraduate pre-Veterinary Club. The equipment will also facilitate graduate student research in the Departments of Anthropology, Biology, and Environmental Sciences Program. The Primatology Lab is currently recruiting a new Anthropology MA student, and is already supporting a PhD student in Biology (Williams), and MSc student in the Environmental Sciences Program. Furthermore, the remote sensing equipment will support FAU’s initiative to provide students new opportunities to directly engage with the South Florida community. Since the monkeys escaped into West Lake Park in the late 1940s, there has been a collective action by the Dania Beach and Fort Lauderdale urban communities to protect the monkeys, which have become a local cultural phenomenon. In the past four months, the FAU Primatology Lab’s research with the monkeys has been featured twice on local news broadcasts (CBS 12 and Miami News 7), once in the Sun Sentinel, and a new article coming out in the January issue of the Fort Lauderdale Magazine. The funds to purchase the cameras, bioacoustics systems, GIS devices, and computers are not available from any other source, and will allow the students to move quickly into remote sensing of the population.

Facilities
?There are no required renovations or upgrades.
Hardware Requirements
For the remote sensing fieldwork, the project requires a ?Panasonic Toughbook 54 Prime Model: 500GB, 4GB, Intel WiFi a/b/g/n/ac, TPM, Bluetooth, Emissive Backlit Keyboard, Long-life Battery, DVD Multi-drive. CF-54 Operating system Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit, 512GB Solid State Hard Drive, 16GB RAM. $2,765.00

3-Year Protection Plus Warranty Upgrade $250.00

CF-VZSU0PW Spare Long-life Battery $145.00

Quotes from BuyTough, Mooring Tech, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia, http://mooringtech.com/products/custom-built-toughbook-54

 

For the megadata store, processed and analyzed in the lab, which will be generated from the bioacoustic monitors, GPS devices, and cameras, the lab requires a Dell Precision Tower 5810 XCTO Base (210-ACQM), 16GB (4x4GB) 2133MHz DDR4 RDIMM ECC (370-ABUO), US English Dell QuietKey USB Keyboard Black (580-AADG), 1GB nVidea NVS 315 (DMS59( (DMS59-udal DVI adapter) (ULGA12) (490-BBWX), 500GB 3.5inch Serial ATA (7,200 Rpm) Hard Drive Fixed Precision Workstation (400-AAWR). $1,591.49

Dell 27 Monitor P2714H. $399.99

Quotes from Dell representative , no sales tax included. http://www.dell.com/en-us/

Lock for computer $80.00

Surge Protector for computer $35.00

Software Requirements
?The lab currently has software to analyze video data from a previous tech fee grant, and is collaborating with the Geoscience Department for access to ESRI ArcGIS software. In addition for bioacoustic analysis software the lab will use free software and collaborate with Dr. Rindy Anderson's Avian Acoustic Lab in the Biological Sciences Department. Anderson's lab has licensed sound analysis software and is equipped to analyze sound recordings from wildlife. This tech fee grant will allow the Primate Lab to acquire bioacoustic remote sensing equipment to collaborate with Anderson's Lab. 
Personnel Costs
None
Other Costs
?In addition to items listed here, please refer to the attached excel budget sheet.

8.      Remote sensing equipment

$3,396.00 – 4 Remote bioacoustic monitoring stystems SM4

$2,199.80 – 20 Remote camera stations Bushnell 12MP Trophy Camera HD

$2,369.94 – 6 Wireless remote Camera stations CovertCode Black 3G

$299.99 – 1 Garmin GPS handheld receiver GPSMAP 64S

$242.95 – 1 Canon GPS Receiver GP-E2

Remote sensing equipment accessories

$336.44 – 26 Memory Cards (32GB SDHC)

$159.12 – 4 memory cards (64GB)

$559.96 – 4 sets of Energizer AA Lithium Battery (80 package)

$128.16 – 6 Master Lock Python Locking Cables

$299.80 – 20 Rotating trail camera holders

$608.00 – 8 Sets of 4 9,500mAh D rechargeable batteries

$220.00 – 2 Battery chargers (D rechargeable batteries)

$315.00 – 3 Sets Energizer AA Lithium Battery (60 package)

$180.00 – 6 AT&T Sim Cards (Start up)

$300.00 – 12 AT&T Sim Cards (90 day service per card)

Computer equipment accessories

$54.99 – 1 WD 1TB My Passport Ultra External HD USB 3.0 

$35.00 – WD Passport Nomad Rugged Case




Timeline
?This project will begin once equipment is available and run for 3 years. It is expected that the FAU Primatology Lab will become the academic stewards of the West Lake Park vervet monkey population in addition to other endangered primate populations in Africa. Research permissions from FAU animal and human research ethics committees (IACUC & IRB), as well as Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and West Lake Parks Authority will be renewed after 3 years to continue using the remote sensing equipment to monitor wild primate populations.  
Sustainability
After the 3 year timeline of the project, undergraduate students and graduate students will use their research results to apply for additional funds from OURI grants and external wildlife foundations and funding sources to obtain funds to replace equipment. 
Resource Matching
?PhD student Missy Williams has used personal funds to purchase 6 camera traps already deployed in West Lake Park. The lab is currently using pilot data generated from her cameras to develop the current project which will survey a much larger area of West Lake Park.  We are confident that the requested remote sensing equipment and new computer equipment will generate significant data to successfully monitor the health, ecology and behavior of the West Lake Park wildlife, including vervet monkeys and additional wild primate populations in Africa. The lab's goal to initiate a robust remote sensing project will open new opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students to work with the large volume of data collected from the remote and automatic sensing equipment. The Anthropology Department has provided the lab with a 12 TB Pegasus R6 Thunderbolt RAID Storage Array, which will provide sufficient data backup to this project. 
Implementing Organization
?The Primatology Lab will implement the project. The Primatology Lab is a collaborative research and teaching initiative supported by the Anthropology Department in the College of Arts and Letters, and Biology Department and the Environmental Sciences Program in the College of Science. The PI's department is the Anthropology Department.

Proposal Budget

Fiscal Year 1 Fiscal Year 2 Fiscal Year 3 Total
Hardware One-Time $ 5,151.48 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 5,151.48
Hardware Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Software One-time $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Software Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Personnel One-time $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Personnel Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Other One-time $ 11,844.15 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 11,844.15
Other Recurring $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 0.00
Totals $ 16,995.63 $ 0.00 $ 0.00 $ 16,995.63

Supporting Documentation

Filename Size Description
bioacoustic_monitoring_systems.pdf 115,877b
dell_monitor.pdf 121,476b
dell_precision_quote.pdf 108,024b
TechFeeBudget_detwiler2015.xlsx 12,463b