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Who’s who in the Zoo – Adam McMaster

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In this edition of Who’s who in the Zoo, meet Adam McMaster, a Research Fellow working at the University of Southampton

Who: Adam McMaster, Research Fellow

Location: University of Southampton, UK

Zooniverse projects: Black Hole Hunters, SuperWASP Variable Stars

What is your research about?

I search archives of astronomical observations, looking for patterns which might be caused by interesting types of star or rare astronomical events. I work with so-called “time series” data, which is where measurements are taken repeatedly over time. In my case, I’m looking at how the brightness of stars changes over anything from days to years. In SuperWASP Variable Stars, we’re looking for certain kinds of repeating variability, such as eclipses and pulsations, in data originally collected by the SuperWASP exoplanet search. In Black Hole Hunters, we’re looking for a type of gravitational microlensing, where a black hole briefly magnifies the light from a star, and we’re currently searching the archives of the TESS exoplanet search, with plans to add data from several other surveys in the near future.

How do Zooniverse volunteers contribute to your research?

The volunteers make our projects possible. We’re looking for the things that get missed by automated searches. Computer algorithms are great at finding a lot of things, but no matter how good they are there will always be things that they miss. Slightly odd looking examples, noisy data, and unexpected things that no one knew to program the computer to find. Only people can find these things, and there is simply too much data to look through ourselves.

In SuperWASP Variable Stars, we’re looking for stars that have been missed in previous searches of the data. The SuperWASP data can be particularly noisy, which can make searching it a challenge. We’ve found that people are really good at separating the noise from the real thing. We’ve written up and published some of the results of this project already, and we publish an interactive database of the results at superwasp.org.

In Black Hole Hunters, the microlensing events we’re looking for are expected to be the hardest ones to spot. Even with really high quality data, we expect the most interesting events to barely stand out against the background noise. That’s what makes a manual search so useful.

What’s a surprising or fun fact about your research field?

The Milky Way is predicted to contain millions of black holes, but we only know about roughly 70 of them. Those were almost all spotted because they’re not really black, at least in X-rays. They’re very bright in X-rays because they’re consuming matter, which heats up as it falls into the black hole. The vast majority of black holes are not expected to be feeding and should truly be black. Those are the ones we’re looking for! We can’t see the black holes themselves, but we should be able to see the effects of their gravity. That’s why we think gravitational microlensing is a good way to find them.

What first got you interested in research?

I have always been interested in science and astronomy for as long as I can remember. I had a telescope as a kid, and I remember going outside to look at the comet Hale-Bopp with my dad. I’m afraid I don’t really remember the first time I thought about actually doing research myself, but I took a rather indirect route to get here. Despite being interested in research (and almost doing a computer science PhD), after university I first worked as a web developer for a few years before eventually finding my way to an astronomy PhD.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

I’d honestly love just to be able to spend a day sitting and reading a book, but these days my children take up most of my spare time (and energy)! Maybe I’ll be able to do that again in a few years. Also, nothing beats a long walk in the country with the dog.

What are you favourite citizen science projects?

It’s been a long time since it was active, but I always had a soft spot for the SETI Live project here on the Zooniverse. It was obviously unlikely to find anything, but there was something exciting about working on data in real time as it came off of the telescope.

What guidance would you give to other researchers considering creating a citizen research project?

If you’ve never done it before, talk to those of us who have! Especially when it comes to the Zooniverse, everyone is very friendly and happy to help, so there’s no need to try and figure everything out on your own.

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Patricia Smith

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In this edition of Who’s who in the Zoo, meet Patricia, Community Manager of the Science Scribbler organisation.

Who: Patricia Smith, Community Manager

Location: The Rosalind Franklin Institute, Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire, UK

Zooniverse project: The Science Scribbler organisation

(photo credit: Ryan Cowan)

What is your research about?

As a community manager, I wear a lot of different hats! My formal background is materials science and biomaterials, but I’m now the ‘citizen science specialist’ in a lot of my day-to-day research. I work alongside imaging specialists, software engineers, and experts in a variety of biosciences to help them design interesting, effective, and worthwhile projects on the Zooniverse. Essentially, I make sure that the experts are asking the right questions, in the right way, for our volunteers to be able to understand and contribute most effectively to our research.

I also spend a lot of time supporting our Science Scribbler community and making sure our volunteers are the first to hear about any project updates or research outcomes. The rest of my time is spent working with teachers to support them in using citizen science in the classroom through our Virus Factory in Schools project, and dabbling in a little bit of my own research too.

How do Zooniverse volunteers contribute to your research?

Most of the Science Scribbler projects launched so far have focused on 3D biological imaging data. When we ask questions about a particular sub-cellular structure or disease, we usually have to go through a process called segmentation: essentially colouring in every pixel that we count as being part of a particular class or label. Automated segmentation methods are constantly improving, but most of the time they still require a lot of expert annotation to either train or finetune the segmentation model. Creating this annotation is a huge bottleneck in processing all the data we collect. As a consequence, we usually have to compromise in some way: looking at a smaller sample size or asking less complicated questions.

Where volunteers help us in our research is in providing the annotations we need to train or refine our segmentation models. Once we have segmentation models that are working well, we can start to ask the really interesting questions – like what differences can we see in the mitochondria of healthy or diseased placenta? And what does that mean for our understanding of that disease?

But using citizen science to train or finetune our models isn’t just about passing the workload from a researcher to the crowd – it’s so much more powerful than that. One thing I’m really interested in is how citizen science can impact the bias in our models. If one expert trains a model, it will ‘see’ what that one individual sees. But if a model is trained on thousands of eyes through citizen science, it has the potential to be less biased than the expert, and who knows what that will bring!

What’s a surprising or fun fact about your research field?

We collect a lot of data at the Rosalind Franklin Institute. Recently we celebrated reaching 1 petabyte of Franklin data with a petabyte party (yes, there was cake). A petabyte is one million gigabytes – a huge amount of data for anyone to analyse – hence why we know citizen science is so valuable in our research. But what astounds me is how biology is at a completely different level; you can store roughly 215 petabytes of data in just 1 gram of DNA. Mind: blown.

What first got you interested in research?

I’m very lucky that I was exposed to a lot of science and engineering from a very early age. I think I decided I’d be a biochemist when I was just 9 years old, but in the end materials science stole my heart! There’s something fundamentally rewarding about being able to look at my everyday environment and ask: “How does this work?”, “What is this made of?” and most importantly “Why????”

In my role I’ve learned a lot about the impact science capital can have on a child’s attitude towards science and STEM careers. It’s part of why I think science communication is so important, and why I chose to work in a position that allows me to share my love of science with so many people.

What’s something people might not expect about your job or daily routine?

We livestream citizen science on Twitch!

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

I really enjoy hiking and skiing in the alps, DnD, board games, and a good flat white. I also spent a decade dedicating half my time to rowing – when I started this role I was working part-time alongside training as a full-time athlete.

What are you favourite citizen science projects?

Too many to count! I’m always very nosey when a new project launches on the Zooniverse, so I try to submit at least a few classifications for each one. I really like using the Zooniverse app, so Gwitch Hunters comes to mind there. I also really enjoy the Etch A Cell projects, HMS NHS, and Monkey Health Explorer. The first project I contributed to was Civil War Bluejackets. Following the progress on the project over the last 3 years has been really easy thanks to their amazing blog and newsletters. They recently moved from full transcription (which I did a lot of) to correcting the automated transcriptions that were trained on our original work. It’s really cool to see the project progress in real time like that!

What guidance would you give to other researchers considering creating a citizen research project?

Getting a fresh pair of eyes on your data is really important in project design – sometimes you know the data too well and you’ll be blind to some really simple changes that will make your workflows much more straightforward. Remember to provide positive and negative examples – not just what you should do, but what you shouldn’t do as well. Finally, be ready to respond to your community in the early stages of the project. The first few weeks are really where you build out your FAQs and refine your field guide – especially if your volunteers find unusual examples in your dataset!

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

I wanted to say a huge thank you to our Science Scribbler community! Since our first project launched in 2018, you have contributed over 4.4 million classifications to our projects. That’s the equivalent of 10 years of effort from a full-time employee!

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Hillary Burgess

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In this edition of Who’s who in the Zoo, meet Hillary, a member of our team who is involved in our work exploring the ethics of machine learning in public-engaged research.

Who: Hillary Burgess

Zooniverse project: Ethical Considerations for Machine Learning in Public-Engaged Research

What is your research about?

I am a longtime enthusiast of participatory science. This enthusiasm has led me to wear many different hats in this space – from project designer and lead, to volunteer, to researcher studying theory and practice of public engaged science. I’m currently supporting an effort to develop recommendations for running AI-engaged projects on the Zooniverse platform. As A.I., particularly machine learning, becomes more prevalent as a research tool and in other aspects of society, there is a mix of worry and excitement among the Zooniverse community. The recommendations will be responsive to the interests and concerns raised by Zooniverse stakeholders and will integrate best practices and learnings from the broader community. This involves engaging with experts in communications and ethical use of technology, Zooniverse leadership, and Zooniverse volunteers.

How do Zooniverse volunteers contribute to your research?

Zooniverse volunteers are the reason for Zooniverse. We want to hear from as many volunteers as possible, so we can move forward in a way that reflects the diverse experiences and perspectives of this community. In fact, this initiative was born out of concerns about the use of A.I. on the Zooniverse platform. The funding Zooniverse received from the Kavli Foundation allows us to convene a series of four workshops to hear from a variety of stakeholders, including a few volunteers. But because the capacity for those workshops is small and not everyone wants to engage in a workshop format, we’re also sending out four short surveys for volunteers. Survey responses are feeding directly into our planning, and will be a key inspiration for the final recommendations for A.I. engaged projects on the Zooniverse platform. We need input every step of the way. Volunteers are also invited to share their perspective on Talk. We have had a phenomenal response to the first two surveys from over 1000 volunteers. Some of the questions are open-ended and I am fascinated and inspired by the diversity of opinion in these responses! Some people are really excited by the thought that they could contribute to machine learning, and a higher pace of progress toward research outcomes they care about. Others are deeply concerned about the potential for data quality issues and the environmental impacts associated with energy demand from running big models. Some express both, and all are valid and important to hear as we navigate this new frontier. As a relative newcomer to the Zooniverse community, reading the replies have given me many AHA! moments about what motivates people to participate in Zooniverse projects, and enormous appreciation for the passion and expertise among volunteers.

What’s a surprising or fun fact about your research field?

As a graduate student I worked with volunteers to study pollinator use of home gardens. After our training one of the volunteers discovered a bumblebee in her garden that was thought to be extinct.

What first got you interested in research?

I have always been a curious person who enjoys discovering patterns and connections and diving deep into topics that interest me. Around the age of 10, my teachers nominated me to attend a regional “women in science” day. I was one of just two students who got to go from my school and hear from career scientists. I came home with so much excitement about what felt like the adventure of science.

What’s something people might not expect about your job or daily routine?

I work from home and my two cats (Bubs and Little One), and dog (Mango), are constantly interrupting whatever I am doing with requests to play, eat, go to the bathroom, or sit on my lap.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

Outside of work I love spending time either at sea level on the coast – tidepooling, beach walking etc. or up high hiking in the alpine zone of the Cascade mountains. I love learning and trying new things, and dabble a number of creative outlets from pottery and gardening to DIY house projects. Lately I have also gotten into weightlifting, and sometimes playing cooperative video games.

What are you favourite citizen science projects?

I first got hooked on Zooniverse through Snapshot Serengeti and AmazonCam Tambopata. Participating in the latter actually inspired a trip to Tambopata with my family in 2017. I also have strong tides to rigorous hands on outdoor projects like the University of Washington’s Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP).

What guidance would you give to other researchers considering creating a citizen research project?

Don’t assume that your best volunteer audience thinks like or is motivated by the same things as you. Design for your intended data use and commit to a return on volunteers’ investment. Get feedback early and often.

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Mengyuan Li

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In this edition of Who’s who in the Zoo, meet Mengyuan Li, who is part of the Node Code Breakers team.

Who: Mengyuan Li

Location: King’s College London, UK

Zooniverse project: Node Code Breakers

What is your research about?

My research involves integrative analyses of image and genomic profiling data to investigate metastatic development in lymph nodes.

How do Zooniverse volunteers contribute to your research?

Zooniverse volunteers generated an amazing number of high-quality segmentations which we are working on to train models to assist our pathologists when locating the immune features we’re interested in.

What’s a surprising or fun fact about your research field?

More and more researchers are taking notice of these immune features, especially germinal centres in the lymph nodes.

What first got you interested in research?

The feeling when I solved or explained something with my own research makes me feel good.

What’s something people might not expect about your job or daily routine?

People never expect that there are researchers who don’t go to the lab, but instead sit in front of computers for the entire working day.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

Finding some interesting things to do and interesting places to go near to London at weekends. Buying beautiful dresses and doing research on makeup when I am on vacation. Video games, manga, cosplay and planning my next trip to Japan, when I have spare time!

What are you favourite citizen science projects?

HMS NHS: The Nautical Health Service

What guidance would you give to other researchers considering creating a citizen research project?

Try to think from the volunteers perspective; what will interest them? It is very helpful to discuss your project with non-experts to improve your project design and the wording for a more general audience.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Scientific research is fun, there are always some interesting shapes or patterns to be discovered!

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Marianne Barrier

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In this edition of Who’s who in the Zoo, meet Marianne Barrier, who is part of the Monkey Health Explorer team.

Who: Marianne Barrier, Lab Manager, Genomics & Microbiology Research Lab

Location: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, USA

Zooniverse project: Monkey Health Explorer

What is your research about?

I’m actually trained in genetics and using DNA as a tool, so I’ve had to expand my knowledge to other areas as we set up our Monkey Health Explorer project. This project is one piece of a larger puzzle being assembled by a collaborative group of scientists all studying different aspects of a colony of Rhesus macaque monkeys living on an island off the coast of Puerto Rico. Our piece involves examining the blood of these monkeys to get a snapshot of their health, just like when we have our blood drawn at a doctor’s office. The data we collect about the blood cells is then examined alongside data from other researchers, such as behavioral or gene expression data, to tell more about each monkey.

How do Zooniverse volunteers contribute to your research?

The primary focus of our project is to count the 5 types of white blood cells in blood smears in order to determine if these numbers are in the “normal” ranges for a healthy monkey or if they might indicate the monkey is sick. Our volunteers learn about the visual features of each type of white blood cell and contribute to our research by identifying the white blood cells in blood smear images from our monkeys. We then summarize the results from all volunteers to give us the white blood cell counts for each monkey sample.

In addition to helping us identify these cells, we have several volunteers who are trained cell professionals or medical or veterinary students who have given us additional insights into our monkeys. They have pointed out unique patterns in the cells that indicate specific illnesses, such as parasitic infections.

What’s a surprising or fun fact about your research field?

Rhesus macaque blood cells look very similar to human blood cells. I learned how to identify the cells in our project using training materials for human blood.

The “positive” and “negative” part of our blood types is called the “Rh factor” because that particular type of blood protein was first identified in Rhesus macaque monkeys.

What first got you interested in research?

I’ve always loved learning how things work and was a big fan of the TV show MacGyver because he could figure out how to resolve a problem by using items he had around him. This inspired me to think about how to approach a problem from multiple views and come up with potential solutions using standard and non-standard methods.

What’s something people might not expect about your job or daily routine?

The lab I work in is inside of a Museum and has glass walls, so visitors can watch us work. Sometimes when I step outside the lab, I end up talking with visitors about what we’re doing and answering their questions about what they can see, such as our DNA sequencers and liquid handling robot. We also have special events at the Museum where I have the opportunity to share about our Monkey Health Explorer project to visitors and also host teacher training workshops to show them how to incorporate our project into their classroom with the educational materials we’ve developed.

Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing?

My love of learning extends to everything – I read/listen to audiobooks (mysteries lately), have 3 languages going on Duolingo (French, Spanish, German), rotate between crafty hobbies (painting, drawing, knitting, 3D print design), play multiple instruments (learning drums now), and recently added 2 bee hives to our garden.

What are you favourite citizen science projects?

I do love adding photos to iNaturalist as I come across new (to me) creatures and plants as I explore outside.

What guidance would you give to other researchers considering creating a citizen research project?

I would suggest spending time exploring several projects that have similarities to what you’re thinking of designing and use these as guides to consider what type of information you want to get from your project and how best to design training to make it interesting and accessible to volunteers. Also, make use of the Zooniverse Talk to interact with other project researchers to gain insights and learn from them. It’s a great community with a wealth of knowledge and experience!

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Shaun A. Noordin

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In this edition of our Who’s who in the Zoo series meet Shaun, a frontend developer here at the Zooniverse. Grab a cuppa and have a read 🙂

– Helen

sketch-20230324-shaun-profile-picture-a

Name: Shaun A. Noordin

Location: Oxford, UK

Tell us about your role within the team:

I’ve been a frontend web developer since the ancient era of 2017, and I’ve been responsible for building and updating (and occasionally accidentally breaking) various features on the website. If it’s something visible on a Zooniverse webpage, I’ve probably tinkered with it.

What did you do in your life before the Zooniverse?

In between playing Super Mario and Zelda, I somehow managed to earn a Bachelor of Computer degree and landed a job as a web developer at a Malaysian news company. I then decided to move to the UK, partially to earn my MBA & find a new job, and partially because nobody else in my home country appreciates tea as much as I do.

What does your typical working day involve?

I start the day by saying hello to my awesome colleagues on Slack and find out what’s happening. Cat GIFs and emojis 🤪 are used to properly convey important technical information. Most of the day will be spent in front of a computer screen, looking at issues on Github https://github.com/zooniverse/ , debugging problems on the website, and submitting updates to our shared code base. Tea will be had throughout the day, because there is always time for tea.

How would you describe the Zooniverse in one sentence?

It’s people working with people to work on science to make the world a slightly better place, and it is awesome.

Tell us about the first Zooniverse project you were involved with

I built WildCam Gorongosa Lab, which was the supplementary educational website to the (then standalone) WildCam Gorongosa project. WildCam Gorongosa Lab eventually became a template for other camera trap-based educational programs, which are now available on Zooniverse Classroom: https://classroom.zooniverse.org/

Of all the discoveries made possible by the Zooniverse, which for you has been the most notable? (and why?)

I’m particularly impressed by the discovery of exoplanets, as with Planet Hunters TESS. Now, I’m sure the amazing astronomy nerds I work with might find the knowledge & technique pretty standard, but I was personally amazed to learn how – by observing the light of distant stars over a period of time and finding out when they regularly decrease in brightness – we could discover planets in distant galaxies.

What’s been your most memorable Zooniverse experience?

The semi-regular Zooniverse Team Meetings are always a highlight. I work regularly with my friends & colleagues from across the UK and USA, but I don’t always get to meet them… until the ZTM brings us all together in one place. It’s a great time to discuss project plans, plan long-term technical solutions together, swap jokes, and debate what’s the best kind of tea. (Japanese green tea with slices of strawberries, for a blend of light freshness and sweet fruitiness.)

What are your top three citizen science projects? 

WildCam Gorongosa has a special place in my heart as it’s one of the earliest projects I’ve been involved in. Creating WCG Lab was a great experience in understanding how the Zooniverse team worked, and the independence and initiative I’m given as a developer. As for the other top two, that’d be Planet Hunters TESS (because I built its unique light curve viewer component) and Anti-Slavery Manuscripts (because I helped build our first transcription project and learnt a lot of things along the way).

What advice would you give to a researcher considering creating a Zooniverse project?

When building a project, I’d share the same advice as writing code: start small and create a proof of concept first. Afterwards, keep iterating by making small and discrete changes until you reach your goal – and always test what you’ve built at each major step. Also, take consistent tea breaks.

How can someone who’s never contributed to a citizen science project get started?

As a complete introvert who’s always wary of social interaction, believe me when I say: just jump in. Or with more detail: if you’re interested in something, jump in, read all the instructions, be nice to the people you meet, and don’t be too shy to ask questions. If you’re afraid of making mistakes or not knowing what to do, don’t be – skills and knowledge can be gained with patience, but that enthusiasm you have to learn and contribute is something special that should be nurtured.

Where do you hope citizen science and the Zooniverse will be in 10 years time?

In space. I can’t wait to work in a zero-G office orbiting our planet, though admittedly the cost of the commute would be through the stratosphere. (But seriously: I hope the Zooniverse becomes more open and accessible to more people throughout the world. We’re doing a lot of work on adding language support and improving accessibility, but there’s still more to do.)

Is there anything in the Zooniverse pipeline that you’re particularly excited about?

We always have a few fun experiments from our monthly hackdays, but not all of them end up ready to enter the full production pipeline, alas. My favourite was an unimplemented “voice command mode” where you could classify images by screaming at your computer, “MONKEYS!” “FIVE!” “DANCING!” “DONE & SUBMIT!”. It would have been a great way to allow for hands-free volunteer classifications as well as make your neighbours wonder what is happening in your home.

When not at work, where are we most likely to find you?

When I’m not in front of a screen doing work, I’m in a front of a screen playing video games. I also draw comics (on a tablet PC), write technical articles (on a PC), and make my own games (again on a PC). 90% of my waking hours is spent staring at glowing rectangles, and if you know which The Onion article that joke was in reference to, I think we’ll get along just fine.

Do you have any party tricks or hidden talents?

I studied Japanese so I could better understand my favourite video games, but then I learnt that Mario is actually Italian. Argh! Boku wa baka desu!!

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I have no links to share, but I wanted to say thanks for reading all the way to the end. I know that not everyone understands my odd sense of humour, but this is why I love working here at the Zooniverse. My friends and colleagues are great people who encourage me to embrace my weirdness and eccentricities, because they trust that I always have everyone’s best interests at heart. This, in turn, motivates me to work hard to help build a better website for everyone. On that note, I hope you too find yourself welcome here in the Zooniverse!

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Liz Dowthwaite

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In our Who’s who in the Zoo blog series we introduce you to some of the people behind the Zooniverse.

In this edition, meet Dr Liz Dowthwaite, who is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham, and long-term Zooniverse research collaborator

– Helen

Name: Liz Dowthwaite

Location: University of Nottingham, UK

Tell us about your role within the team 

I have been working with the Zooniverse off and on for about 3 years. I don’t have an official Zooniverse job title, I am a Senior Research Fellow in Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (https://www.tas.ac.uk) and Horizon Digital Economy Research (https://www.horizon.ac.uk/) at Nottingham, and am lucky enough to be able to spend some of that time working with the Zoo team. However, I have been called the ‘tame psychologist’! My work with the Zooniverse focuses on understanding how volunteer experiences can be enhanced to encourage continued participation and benefit the volunteer.

What did you do in your life before the Zooniverse?

Before working with the Zooniverse I was doing the same things I do now! I did BSc Psychology and an MA in The Body and Representation at the University of Reading, UK. I also worked in the academic library there for 7 years as a library assistant receiving all the shiny new books. I did my PhD in Digital and Creative Economy at Nottingham, in the Horizon CDT, studing online webcomic communities. I started as a Research Assistant in Horizon in 2016 whilst writing up my PhD, moving on to Research Fellow when I graduated in 2018, and recently won a promotion to Senior Research Fellow.

What does your typical working day involve?

I am a research psychologist based in a computer science department, so I study how people interact with technology. I mostly work from home in a tiny village in Oxfordshire, being frequently interrupted by two cats who would swear they have never been fed in their lives. I travel up to Nottingham about once a month to see my PhD students, and also to teach postgrads about digital footprints, responsible research and innovation (RRI) and experimental design. In my day-to-day I work across a range of multidisciplinary projects, for example online moderation and end-to-end encryption, trust in technology among people with mental health difficulties, benchmarks for measuring trust, and online wellbeing. This involves a lot of online meetings with my colleagues around the country, and lots of time spent reading things on the internet! Some of this is managing and planning the projects, some is conducting research – I write and analyse a lot of questionnaires!

How would you describe the Zooniverse in one sentence?

The Zooniverse is a force for good in the online world, allowing anyone anywhere to make a real difference.

Tell us about the first Zooniverse project you were involved with

I tend to study the Zooniverse as a whole but I last year I worked with some of the team at Science Scribbler: Placenta Profiles to help them to understand more about their volunteers.

Of all the discoveries made possible by the Zooniverse, which for you has been the most notable?

I found a Supernova! Does that count?!

What’s been your most memorable Zooniverse experience?

When we run surveys with volunteers we often get some really lovely stories about what the Zooniverse really means to people, and I think that’s really wonderful. Our projects have connected people to their own histories and cultures, and made impacts on their current lives, which is really heartwarming and I love reading them.

What are your top three citizen science projects? 

I don’t really have a favourite, I like to play with a range of projects. I tend to enjoy images and graphs the most. I was completely addicted to the original Muon Hunters, I saved all the images that looked like smiley faces, and it was really simple and quick and had a real ‘just one more’ vibe. I also love the University of Wyoming Raccoon Project because who doesn’t love trash pandas?

What advice would you give to a researcher considering creating a Zooniverse project?

Think about how you can support and engage with your volunteers beyond just asking them to take part in the project!

How can someone who’s never contributed to a citizen science project get started?

Just get clicking! There really is something to interest everyone on the Zooniverse – explore the project pages and dive in. Most of the projects have excellent tutorials to get you started. Remember that it’s ok to get things wrong, many people classifying the same things leads to an excellent consensus and high quality data. And if a project isn’t for you, there is bound to be another one out there that you’ll love.

When not at work, where are we most likely to find you?

On the internet! But also reading the London Review of Books, drinking wine, or walking in the beautiful countryside around Oxfordshire – sometimes all of those at once if we find an awesome country pub! I’m also a keen cook (but not baker) and an extremely keen eater, and a reluctant runner (partly due to all of the eating)…

You can hear more from Liz on Twitter or on her blog.

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Maysa Bashraheel

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In our Who’s who in the Zoo blog series we introduce you to some of the people behind the Zooniverse. This week, meet Maysa, a developer in our Oxford team

– Helen

Name: Maysa Bashraheel

Location: Oxford University, but based in Manchester.

Tell us about your role within the team 

This is my third week! I am the Zooniverse Developer Intern.

What did you do in your life before the Zooniverse?

About 4 weeks ago I was still a science teacher at a secondary school in Manchester – I came to my role after spending the last couple of years dabbling in coding and building stuff. I only realised I could potentially make a career out of a hobby in January. In a past life I was a Research Scientist for the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR) and specialised in Immunology with a focus on Transplants and specifically the heart. My bachelors is in Biomedical Science and I have a postgraduate degree in Education.

What does your typical working day involve?

Currently, I am learning a lot, I spend a lot of time familiarising myself with the codebase that makes up the Zooniverse. I am attempting to solve some issues, asking a million questions and exploring.

How would you describe the Zooniverse in one sentence?

The Zooniverse is a nurturing organisation that is committed to radical transparency and connects people from all corners of the world.

Tell us about the first Zooniverse project you were involved with

I think it was Beluga Bits! But I really have been fascinated by the Dental Disease projects and some of the interesting work around Etch-A-Cell. I think I have a thing for drawing projects.

Of all the discoveries made possible by the Zooniverse, which for you has been the most notable?

The TESS Planet Hunters discovery planetary systems was cool. My personal favourite is the Galaxy Zoo discovery of Pea Galaxies (a class of compact extremely star-forming galaxies that look like green peas!)

What’s been your most memorable Zooniverse experience?

So far, the 2022 Zooniverse Team Meeting. Truly a wonderful and productive and just overall exciting experience.

What are your top three citizen science projects? 

The Big Sleep Survey, Parasite Safari, Stall Catchers.

What advice would you give to a researcher considering creating a Zooniverse project?

The volunteers are your biggest asset!

Where do you hope citizen science and the Zooniverse will be in 10 years time?

I’m hoping it will be a part of the Education system in a massive way. I would love if homework for students outlined contributing to a citizen science project and the curriculum actively involved scientists from a spectrum of backgrounds to inspire the future generation.

When not at work, where are we most likely to find you?

Hiking! My next hike will be up Snowdon in the dark so I can watch the sunrise.

Do you have any party tricks or hidden talents?

I can do some weird stuff with my tummy.

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Kat O’Brien Skerry

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This week meet Kat O’Brien Skerry, our Public Engagement Officer, who has been taking Zooniverse projects into schools around the UK.

– Helen

Name: Kat O’Brien Skerry

Location: University of Oxford, UK

Tell us about your role within the team 

I joined the team in January 2022 as a Public Engagement Officer and I work on a fixed term contract bringing the Zooniverse to schools and educational settings around the country.

What did you do in your life before the Zooniverse?

My background is in STEM education having originally trained as a physics and maths teacher. I moved from there into informal education and most recently spent 5 years at the science museum in London in their learning team.

What does your typical working day involve?

My role is split between delivering workshops in schools and developing those workshops and convincing schools that they’re a great idea. So some days, I will be in classroom leading hands on activities, getting kids stuck into the Zooniverse, or facilitating zoom calls with the researchers. Some days I will be trying out experiments and explanations on anybody who I can find who appears (reasonably) willing to play. Some days I have a bit more of an office life and I’ll be finessing what we’ve done, contacting schools and all that stuff..

How would you describe the Zooniverse in one sentence?

A one stop shop for citizen science.

Tell us about the first Zooniverse project you were involved with

I first used Galaxy Zoo as an activity in a STEM club that I was running and had just as much fun playing as the kids did. Being added as an editor on projects so that I could take on this role was pretty terrifying!

What’s been your most memorable Zooniverse experience?

The feedback from one of my most recent schools was just the best. I had one pupil ask me, wide-eyed, “Did I really do actual science?” and respond to my “Of course you did!” with “Wow, maybe I could be a scientist”. I could have cried. To me, Zooniverse is a way to get kids to see themselves as scientists and seeing that impact becoming real is wonderful.

What are your top three citizen science projects? 

I’m biased by the two I work on, so Galaxy Zoo and Science Scribbler: Virus Factory. But I also have a real soft spot for the Davy Notebooks Project because I’m a big history of science fan.

What advice would you give to a researcher considering creating a Zooniverse project?

Again, I’m biased, but think about if it could be useful in outreach!

How can someone who’s never contributed to a citizen science project get started?

Give it a go! There are so many great projects out there from annual birdwatching and insect hunts which you can do at home, to more supported projects in museums if you want a bit more help as you get started.

Where do you hope citizen science and the Zooniverse will be in 10 years time?

I’d love to see citizen science embraced as a way to make science education and outreach more meaningful for both schools and researchers, and Zooniverse as a means to do so.

When not at work, where are we most likely to find you?

I’m studying for an MA in Education at the moment (specialising in STEM education) so spend a lot of time in the library. Otherwise, I am found inexpertly herding and raising a small menagerie of children, chickens and chameleons.

Do you have any party tricks or hidden talents?

I can come up with a kid friendly STEM activity for almost anything. And will. Often without being asked.

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Who’s who in the Zoo – Mary Westwood

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In our Who’s who in the Zoo blog series we introduce you to some of the people behind the Zooniverse.

In this edition, meet Dr Mary Westwood, a recent addition to the Zooniverse team.

– Helen

Name: Mary Westwood

Location: University of Oxford, UK

Tell us about your role within the team 

I joined the Zooniverse as a postdoctoral research assistant/project manager at the end of January 2022.

What did you do in your life before the Zooniverse?

I did a BSc and MSc in Biology at Wright State University in Ohio (where I’m from), then moved to the UK to do a PhD in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Edinburgh. Mostly I’m interested in how timing affects interactions between individuals, and towards the end of my PhD I started to dabble in bioacoustics and machine learning. Those last two topics are what led me to the Zooniverse.

What does your typical working day involve?

It varies a lot, but primarily I split my time between helping research teams get their projects up and running and doing my own research. I also get to write the weekly newsletters, which is a lot of fun.

How would you describe the Zooniverse in one sentence?

The innate curiosity and goodness of people put to very good use.

Tell us about the first Zooniverse project you were involved with

When I first checked out the Zooniverse, I wanted to see how bioacoustics projects were run on the platform. I can’t remember every project I looked into, but I do remember seeing HumBug and thinking what an incredible project it is.

Of all the discoveries made possible by the Zooniverse, which for you has been the most notable?

Research from the Penguin Watch team and volunteers has led to additional protections to marine protected areas, which is a really awesome outcome from a Zooniverse project.

What’s been your most memorable Zooniverse experience?

Best memory: all of the project launches, they’re a lot of fun.

Worst memory: mistakenly thinking I’d changed the background image of the entire Zooniverse website.

What are your top three citizen science projects? 

I love them all equally.

What advice would you give to a researcher considering creating a Zooniverse project?

Just go for it. Start building a project, play around with setting up workflows. Delete them, start again. Don’t be afraid to reach out to us for help.

How can someone who’s never contributed to a citizen science project get started?

Browse which projects we’re hosting to see what sparks your interest. Download apps like iNaturalist and Merlin Bird ID – both awesome platforms which get you out into nature (win) and help science (double win).

Where do you hope citizen science and the Zooniverse will be in 10 years time?

Everywhere. Since discovering the Zooniverse, I can’t believe everyone doesn’t already know about it.

Is there anything in the Zooniverse pipeline that you’re particularly excited about?

I’m about to experience my first Zooniverse Team Meeting. Very excited to finally get together with all of the awesome people I’ve worked with remotely over the past six months.

When not at work, where are we most likely to find you?

Somewhere outdoors and with a pint, possibly also with a book or friends.

Do you have any party tricks or hidden talents?

My party trick is strong-arming any topic of conversation into a discussion about circadian rhythms.

You can check out Mary’s Zooniverse project here: The Cricket Wing

You can hear more from Mary on Twitter.