Engineers for Exploration (E4E) brings together students, scientists and explorers to build technologies that help us see – and hear – the planet in new ways. From coral reefs to coastal surf zones to the forests of the Amazon, E4E develops innovative computer systems that close critical gaps in conservation and exploration. Collaborating with partners such as the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, The Nature Conservancy and the National Geographic Society, these projects move beyond the lab and into the field, where they are already shaping how researchers understand fragile ecosystems.

This colloquium will spotlight two projects, SmartFin and Acoustic Species Detection, that ask a deceptively simple question: What happens when we give nature new ways to speak to us, and new ways for us to listen?