I presented my landslide citizen science research as a Next Generation Plenary panelist at the 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen, Germany, in October 2019. I was honored to be a part of this panel, chosen through a competitive video application process by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). I was also honored to be named a 2019 Future Space Leaders Fellow, which made my trip to the 70th IAC possible.
This was my largest speaking engagement to-date, to an audience of about 100 people! An interview and the recording of the presentation and panel discussion are below.
Photo credit: International Astronautical Federation
[Interview] Earth observation and citizen science – a match made in heaven.
I was interviewed by Carla Bleiker for international broadcaster DW. A snippet of my interview can be found below.
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Helping NASA to model landslides
"Citizen science is a great way to empower local communities to have a handle on what's going on around them," Caroline Juang, a PhD student at Columbia University, told DW.
At Thursday's plenary, Juang presented the "Landslide Reporter," a project she launched and managed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). People anywhere in the world can report landslides that occurred near them or that they read about in news coverage.
Using the Landslide Reporter app, citizen scientists will share where exactly the event happened, what caused it, whether it was near a road, how bad the damage is, etc. This way, they add more information than remote data, like from satellite imaging, could ever supply.
A researcher like Juang validates all data sent in by citizen scientists. These data points then get added to a global landslide map that NASA has been compiling for 12 years. The goal: to one day be able to predict landslides and save lives. And it's going well.
"Over the 13 months that this program has existed, we've received more than 100 data points that we entered into our system," the 24-year-old told the audience at the IAC plenary. "This has improved NASA's modeling efforts."
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Read the full article on DW.com.
Photo credit: International Astronautical Federation
Video: Next Generation Plenary on Citizen Science and Earth Observations
The full presentation is up on YouTube! You can watch my 5-minute presentation and the following panel discussion starting at 35:32.
I would like to acknowledge the Next Generation Plenary team and the IAF Cross-Cultural Communications Workshop team for helping me prepare for my presentation.