I learned of cure through an email and knew that it was going to be a unique and exciting experience. I came to UVM to learn in and outside of the classroom and am so thankful the university and Dr. Laura May-Collado provides student with this. My project was centered around boat traffic and its effect on dolphin foraging. After talking with Dr. May-Collado, we decided that I was going to study the foraging sounds of bottlenose dolphins in the presence and absence of noise pollution from boats. This really meant a lot to me because I come from a major port city where the local toothed whale population is in decline. Finding literature on this specific topic proved difficult, but this made my work all the more fascinating.
Through CURE, I was able to develop my skillset in Raven Pro, the program we used to examine audio files. By working with it, I became more familiar with the tools biologists use to analyze their data. At first, it was hard recognizing echolocation clicks among the sea of snapping shrimp and boats, but it slowly became second nature. There were days where the excitement of hearing a new noise was amazing but also those where staring at a scrolling blue screen gave me headaches like nothing else. This was really new for me, but I loved the course because, despite the ups and downs, you know that you are working to do good.
This course was also one of those times in life where you learn how valuable failure can be. I went in with big plans, but as the semester rolled along, I had to narrow my goals. In the end my results were interesting but left me wanting more. Something that Dr. May Collado instilled in us early on was to be okay with disappointment. Much of the scientific process is repetition and reworking, and I got my first taste of that here. I also learned that I need to work on myself and my own process. As a little bit of a perfectionist, I want to reword everything up to the last moment, but
CURE has shown me what it means to be a part of something bigger. A common saying in the scientific world is “standing on the shoulders of giants,” and CURE really instills that in its student participants. Nothing I was doing would have been possible without the hard work of those before me. All over the world, marine ecosystems are being put at risk by noise pollution, and the scientific community is working hard to catch up. Even if my work doesn’t change anything, I have gained a huge appreciation for sub marine acoustics and the work that goes into studying them. Going forward, I want to do my part in protecting these incredible species.
Through CURE, I was able to develop my skillset in Raven Pro, the program we used to examine audio files. By working with it, I became more familiar with the tools biologists use to analyze their data. At first, it was hard recognizing echolocation clicks among the sea of snapping shrimp and boats, but it slowly became second nature. There were days where the excitement of hearing a new noise was amazing but also those where staring at a scrolling blue screen gave me headaches like nothing else. This was really new for me, but I loved the course because, despite the ups and downs, you know that you are working to do good.
This course was also one of those times in life where you learn how valuable failure can be. I went in with big plans, but as the semester rolled along, I had to narrow my goals. In the end my results were interesting but left me wanting more. Something that Dr. May Collado instilled in us early on was to be okay with disappointment. Much of the scientific process is repetition and reworking, and I got my first taste of that here. I also learned that I need to work on myself and my own process. As a little bit of a perfectionist, I want to reword everything up to the last moment, but
CURE has shown me what it means to be a part of something bigger. A common saying in the scientific world is “standing on the shoulders of giants,” and CURE really instills that in its student participants. Nothing I was doing would have been possible without the hard work of those before me. All over the world, marine ecosystems are being put at risk by noise pollution, and the scientific community is working hard to catch up. Even if my work doesn’t change anything, I have gained a huge appreciation for sub marine acoustics and the work that goes into studying them. Going forward, I want to do my part in protecting these incredible species.