Name, where are you in the world right now?

Jacob Key, and I’m in West Jefferson, North Carolina.

Where are you joining us from?

I’m studying biomedical engineering at Duke.

Why are you passionate about working in conservation?

I became interested in conservation technology during my first engineering class at Duke. We created a marine tag for marine labs to track rough skin marine animals, such as sharks and tested our design on sandpaper in a fish tank.

What will you be working on with us?

I’m working on pose detection with the Garage team. I’m learning to use DeepLabCut to label different body parts of animals and use machine learning to track movement. Before this technology, you had to use sensors on the animals to track movement. You can use it to track behaviors (a common example is tracking gait), and it can be used to see if there are any irregularities, to try to prevent disease early on.

Do you have a favorite species?

Pandas!

How are you staying entertained during the pandemic?

I’m working on my cousin’s farm in North Carolina. This is my first summer helping with honey harvesting - there are about 16 hives and for one day’s work, we make about 60 pounds of honey.

Outside of your work at CXL, what’s one of the coolest projects you’ve worked on so far?

I was supposed to go to Peru or Guatemala this summer to work on a project teaching engineering to middle schoolers without access. Our travel was cancelled due to COVID, so now we’re putting together an engineering curriculum website instead.