Safer Tagging & Better Data: A Student Effort to Help Scientists Around the World

Watch Duke students Sam Kelly, Henrik Cox, Carmen Hoyt and Ashley Blawas – members of Duke Conservation Technology (DCT) -- explain the parts that make up the Open Tag, an open-sourced tag designed to help boost opportunities for diving animal research in developing areas.

Current tags have high costs and low availability because of poor marketability of these devices and few competitors. The pricing and high percent of lost devices has resulted in less data collection in developing areas due to lack of funding for local researchers.

This new digital tag aims to be open-sourced for researchers in the field, augmenting the amount of data we can collect with fewer resources.

Duke Conservation Technology is a group of students applying their skills developed in the classroom to real world issues. DCT consists of students of almost any field, including engineering, computer science, biology, environmental sciences and more.

Established in 2016, DCT is a first of its kind student group. Working with organizations such as WWF and NOAA, the group has tackled big projects and hosted conferences. The students involved have high exposure to excellent networking opportunities and have access to a large team of young professionals in the field.