Arise Biodiversity

We're hiring! 🎉 Are you (or do you know) a Data Engineer who does like a challenge, and wants to use their data skills to help enable more rapid and data driven research in the battle against declining Biodiversity? Then you might be a great fit for our team! With our data team at Naturalis Biodiversity Center we are building a modern Data Lake for the Arise Biodiversity project, in which we want to enable scientist to identify all multicellular species in the Netherlands. For this we are building a data platform to handle all sorts of data, from wildlife videos, to insect cameras with AI annotations to DNA samples. Sounds like something for you? Apply now! https://lnkd.in/eNGYyWjb Or send a DM for more info. #hiring #dataengineering #data #biodiversity #spark #databricks #python

The Science, the art, the dress! Last week I was honoured to wear the amazing artwork of Else Marijn Hijweege (Instrgram: @eliso.y). She desribed the dress as follows: "The theme of this outfit revolves around the interaction between AI and biodiversity, with a focus on the life and death cycle of both. I visualized both AI and biodiversity as a third life form, taking inspiration from deep neural networks in AI and the networks of fungi, specifically the mycelium. Both networks are invisible, yet omnipresent. Fungi have existed as a fundamental network for centuries, present in your breath, on your skin, in your food – everywhere. AI follows the same path, although it is only now in the early stages of its ubiquitous presence. In my design I visualize the cycle of life and death as it plays out in these networks. Where we know it as linear processes, this is a cycle that is much more flexible and complex. My design is inspired by the mycelium, the network of fungi that creates life from dead matter. But how does that work in AI? This is where the paradox of life comes in: AI creates new systems by processing data and learning patterns, often from “dead” data. It produces abstract forms of “life”, but without biological basis. In the design you see elements of both deconstruction and composition. It is a game of dying and growing, where it is difficult to tell whether something is essentially decomposing or developing. This reflects the dynamics of both networks, which can be both constantly moving and fragile. The use of materials is meaningful: I have chosen glue as a base, an artificial, characterless material. This symbolizes the artificial nature of AI. The different structures and layers in the design are in communication, or dialogue with each other. A beige thread is embroidered through all of this, which emphasizes the interconnections between the different layers. The color is a silver-blue hue, a color that hardly occurs in nature, but is often associated with AI and technology." www.instagram.com/eliso.y/

Yesterday I had the chance to showcase how AI can help biodiversity at the "gala van de wetenschap", bringing together the amazing work happening in Arise Biodiversity, Biodiversity Genomics Europe, MAMBO Project and many more scientific initiatives. What a great experience and opportunity. The fabulous dress is made by the very talented artist Else Marijn van Hijweege, representing the interaction between AI and biodiversity visualized as a third life form including the deep neural and fungal networks that create a continuous cycle of life and death, creation and destruction - invisible yet omnipresent. She can tell much more about this and we will find a way to show her work more permanently. #biodiversity #aiforgood

Yesterday I had the chance to showcase how AI can help biodiversity at the "gala van de wetenschap", bringing together the amazing work happening in Arise Biodiversity, Biodiversity Genomics Europe, MAMBO Project and many more scientific initiatives. What a great experience and opportunity. The fabulous dress is made by the very talented artist Else Marijn van Hijweege, representing the interaction between AI and biodiversity visualized as a third life form including the deep neural and fungal networks that create a continuous cycle of life and death, creation and destruction - invisible yet omnipresent. She can tell much more about this and we will find a way to show her work more permanently. #biodiversity #aiforgood