Careers with STEM: Environment + Data

CAREERS

TERM 1, 2023

withSTEM

™

ENVIRONMENT +DATA

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Wildlife scientist

minutes with a climate scientist p7

Become an environmental manager p3

Meet role models saving the planet with data p4

CAREERS with STEM.COM WILDLIFE + CLIMATE CHANGE + CONSERVATION + MANAGEMENT + DATA SCIENCE + MACHINE LEARNING

ENVIRONMENT+DATA

a t a d e h t g n i g g Di more easily if you’ve got the d an ter fas t ne pla the ve sa n You ca needs to be done and when st mo at wh u yo l tel t tha ers numb

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ngered because of climate ow many animals are enda our do about it? How fast are change and what can we g vin ser pre how well are we forests disappearing and e car l cia spe iving and which need them? Which reefs are thr and attention to survive? you’re l questions rely on data. If All of these environmenta news: g the data, here’s the good someone who loves diggin (think, ery career that uses data you’ll be in demand for ev lls are and machine learning ski most of ‘em). Data analysis in are y the mental careers as just as needed in environ traditional tech careers. ur onment and futureproof yo You can protect the envir ial ific onment + data and art career by working in envir opening making a difference and intelligence (AI). You’ll be . t opportunities for yourself up a world of employmen Win-win-win. dy maths and digital At school, you’ll need to stu – and if need to be top of the class technologies. But you don’t ll, we ts, jec sh are your best sub communication and Engli le op pe ed ne these jobs, too. We they’re super important for is ta da the also communicate what who get the tech but can : on ssi mi everyone on board the telling us so that we can get er Catchpole saving the planet. – Heath

Skills shortlist

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Want to save the environ quiz to find your perfect ment? Take our career. bit.ly/eco-career conservation -quiz

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Environment superintendent, Fortescue Metals Group

Scott Hazelden uses his qualifications in environmental management to make sure Aussie iron ore producer Fortescue Metals sticks to its eco-obligations

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cott wasn’t sure what he wanted to do straight after school, so he enrolled in a University Preparation course at Edith Cowan University, which covers a range of skills and offers an introduction to uni before you land on your degree.

After lots of chats with student services and uni lecturers – and with his love of geography and biology in mind – Scott signed up for a Bachelor of Environmental Management. And he couldn’t have been happier with his choice – highlights included field trips to Walpole and Dryandra, both in southwest Western Australia, to study coastal and marine management, and ecology.

Scott’s next choice was where to work. It was after completing a subject on environmental impact assessments during his degree that he decided on WA’s mining sector. “In my mind, there is no better industry to put your environmental management expertise into practice,” he says.

Scott is currently environme nt superintendent at Fortescue Metals Group, an Australian iron ore producer.

His job is to ensure the compan y sticks to its environmental obligations, wh ich he does through environmental reporting, mo nitoring and inspections.

This means managing a lot of data, and Scott says his team is always looking for wa ys to automate data reporting so they can spend more time analysing the numbers and using them to inform smart, sustainable business decisions. – Gemma Chilton

there is no better industry to put your ement environmental manag ” expertise into practice 3

Bachelor of Environmental Management, ECU

r e e r a c d e d n u o r A well

Graduate Environment Officer, Downer EDi Mining

Environmental Advisor, Fortescue Metals Group

ENVIRONMENT+EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

Scott Hazeld

Environment superinte en nd Fortescue Metals Gr ent, oup

ENVIRONMENT+DATA

ENVIRONMENT+AI & DATA

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s r e e r a c g n i v a s planetusing AI+Data

environment with data, the for ion ss pa ir the ng ini mb co Meet five real-life role models intelligence machine learning and artificial

#1 Wildlife conservationist and tech entrepreneur e-Henry WHO: Camille Goldston, data analytics, TECH: Cloud computing (AI) artificial intelligence ood, it would be f you could define my childh says. You could define ‘wildlife obsessed’,” Camille her career the same way. helor of Animal and After graduating with a Bac University of Sydney, the Veterinary Bioscience from eer in conser vation that Camille had an incredible car n devils, native species in saw her work with Tasmania n leatherback sea tur tles Kakadu National Park, and eve ing all these experiences in Costa Rica. However, dur m. she noticed a recurring proble h government, wit g rkin Her job involved wo er scientists and oth its, businesses, not-for-prof dholders. “Each lan academics, community and ation that was really rm organisation had specific info as ns to how we save important for making decisio explains. Such decisions species in the wild,” Camille where to release a species might include, for example, sur vival. to give it the best chance of t information at the right righ the e “Of ten I didn’t hav ’ not only held back time,” she says. This ‘data gap endangered animals already conser vation efforts, but it threatened with extinction.

“I

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anger Conservation game chled up in tech and,

ille skil To address this problem, Cam tems, a cloud-based Sys o Xyl ed nch two years ago, lau conservation organisations software platform that helps ns. to share data and make decisio “is going to be rm tfo Camille believes the pla ion space”. vat a game changer for the conser erm, Camille wants to As for her future goals – short-t ally. But long-term? “Our grow Xylo Systems internation ss,” she says. “I hope we’ve ambition is to be out of busine diversity loss. We don’t say done our job and reversed bio truth.” – Gemma Chilton that to investors, but it’s the

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NEXT STEP: Listen to our podcast episode featuring Camille talking more about her career pivot from conservationist to tech entrepreneur at CareerswithSTEM.com/podcast @camillegh

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@camille_gh

@douglasthron777

@douglasthron

#2 Drone pilot and animal rescuer WHO: Douglas Thron TECH: Drones, infrared cameras

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NEXT STEP: Watch Douglas’ drones in action on Curiosity stream at bit.ly/Thron

ouglas rescues animals from disaster areas and works with researchers to remotely gather data about vulnerable species. In 2020, he visited areas devastated by the Australian bushfires to locate animals.

“As a wildlife cinematographe r I used my cinematography as an activis m tool to protect wild places .

Once drones came out I use d them as a tool to showcase the beauty of wild areas tha t needed to be protected.

Later on I got the idea to put an infrared camera on a dro ne to help find animals during nat ural disasters. The infrared camera works by seeing the body heat of an animal and then we can go in and rescue it much faster.

“I was pioneering the use of infrared drones to find koalas after the giant fires.

It was challenging because they were often so high in the trees, and the outside temperatures were so warm , that it was hard to get the infrared to decipher between what was a koala and what was hot leaves or bark on a tree!

“There was a lot of trial and error but finally I was able to mount a zoom-lens camera and also a spotlight on the drone to help identif y what was a koala or not. After tha t I was able to save dozens of koalas – one of my most rewarding experiences.” – Hea ther Catchpole

#3 WHO: Alisa Starkey g, satellite data TECH: Machine learnin

t uses remote-sensing lisa runs Ozius, a business tha ntal science to technolog y, AI and environme nat and ural environments. uncover insights about built ut the benefits of data while She says she first learnt abo ntal science degree at the she was doing an environme University of Wollongong. s t can measure global forest Ozius Biome is a program tha Agency’s ce Spa an ope Eur NASA and the and biomass using data from mple.

Copernicus program, for exa er and sets to look at height and cov dat “We’re able to tap into a ,” Alisa says. overall structure of the forest respond big global businesses, we can “From local communities to by see ge. One thing that we get to to the global climate challen ards that when everyone works tow analysing satellite imager y is ole difference.” – Heather Catchp a goal, we can really make a

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NEXT STEP: Try out the Earth Observatory missions at EO Kids AT go.nasa.gov/3yNj6Au

OZIUS BIOME VEGE TATION HEIGHT PRODUCT. VEGE TATIO N HEIGHT IS A KEY PRODUCT OZIUS BIOME PRODUCED SEAM WITHIN LESSLY ACROSS AUSTRALI A AT 20M SPATIAL RES

Applied scientist and business founder

ENVIRONMENT+DATA

ENVIRONMENT+DATA

#4 Wildlife scientist and science communicator WHO: Dr Vanessa Pirot TECH: 3D X-rays, mach ta ine learning

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NEXT STEP: Listen to Vanessa’s full story on ABC Radio National at ab.co/3V5j6W8

ildlife trafficking is a proble m globally, but often we’re only getting par t of the story as we only know about the animals tha t have been smuggled after the smugglers are caught. Van essa, a wildlife scientist and science communicator, says AI could help to prevent wildlife crime.

“It’s a cruel practice and als o a big biosecurity problem as we don’t want exo tic animals that can spread disease,” she says. Van essa is par t of a team helping to train AI to know wh at to look for when scanning luggage or people at an airport, for example.

AI learns by using a data set to build up a picture of something so that it can rec ognise it in real life. AI can be trained to recognise 3D X-r ays of wildlife in much the same way that your smartpho ne can be trained to unlock after recognising you r face.

“The more information we hav e on a variety of animals, the better we can be at stopping this activity,” she says. – Heather Catchpole

#5 Data systems engineer WHO: David Crossman on technology TECH: Facial recogniti Institute of Marine avid works at the Australian or of Information Science. He studied a Bachel iversity and now uses his Technolog y at James Cook Un e ReefCloud. ReefCloud tech and data skills to manag other reef users to instantly helps marine scientists and ut reefs, including the Great get detailed information abo ognition technolog y.

Barrier Reef, using facial rec oaded by snorkelers and By analysing reef images upl can identif y types of coral marine scientists, ReefCloud the reef is changing over and their colours to see how a it contains is stored and time. The vast amount of dat b Ser vices (AWS). accessed using Amazon We e – there is no ‘undo’ “We are in a race against tim fs. Once the window is option for us to save the ree k,” David says. closed, there is no turning bac hours to make sense “Using AWS, it now takes us would have taken our data of data sets that previously to focus on what we do best,” teams months, enabling us he says. – Heather Catchpole

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NEXT STEP: upload your own reef image to ReefCloud. Find out how at reefcloud.ai/how-it-works

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START YOUR CAREER HERE

5 minutes with a climate scientist...

ENVIRONMENT + DATA + STUDY UNDERGRAD Bachelor of Computer Science, University of Adelaide

d data cutting-edge maths an es us sh me Ra ini nd Na her research techniques to inform

Bachelor of Data Science, QUT

What’s your job in a nutsh ell?

I study how physical pro cesses in the ocean and atmosphere inf luence and impact Earth ’s climate an d the changes we should expect. I focus on large-scale phenomena in the tropic s such as El Niño and La Niña even ts and monsoons.

How did you get here?

I grew up with a love of maps and geography because my fam ily moved a lot when I was a child . I realised in high school that I found physics to be an exciting way to think ab out the world around me. I pursued an undergraduate degree in physics follow ed by a master’s degree and a PhD in earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University. It was there that I learned about statistics and mach ine learning.

How do you use data skills to help the environment in your job?

I analyse large amounts of data from satellites and other instru ments using supercomputing systems . These powerful systems allow me to run climate modelling expe riments.

Coolest part of your job?

Getting to use complex, quantitative skills to answer question s about the Earth, while contributin g to solving one of humanity’s greatest ch allenges.

AI is a powerful te ra tool that can acceyleand scientific discover lutions allow us to find so more efficiently”

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Bachelor of Science (Physics), Madras University, India

Bachelor of Environmental Science, Edith Cowan University

ramesh nandini sc ientist climate

Why should someone interested in the environment skill up in data for their future career?

In order to work on important questions, scientists need to have the skill set to access, manage and analyse large amounts of data.

Will new tech like artificial intelligence (AI) have a big impact in the world of conservation?

AI is a powerful tool that can accelerate scientific discovery and enable us to find solutions more efficiently than ever before. Scientists are using AI to tackle challenges from bushfire management and sustainable and enhanced agricultural productivity, to better understanding complex weather patterns and protecting the Great Barrier Reef.

What’s your advice to someone who wants a career that combines environmental science and data?

Don’t focus on data science to the exclusion of subject knowledge, but develop both skill sets in tandem.

This approach will equip you with the knowledge to ask the right questions, and the skill sets to answer them.

Master of Science (Earth Physics), Australian National University

PhD (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Columbia University, USA Research Scientist, Natural Hazards and Climate Risk, CSIRO Data61

Chief Investigator, Centre for Data Analytics for Resources and the Environment, University of Sydney

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Bachelor of IT (Data Science), Macquarie University VET COURSES Certificate IV or Diploma of Environmental Monitoring and Technology, Tafe WA Diploma of Conservation and Land Management, TAFE Queensland, TAFE SA or Melbourne Polytechnic ONLINE Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Earth Monitoring, FutureLearn

ENVIRONMENT + DATA + JOBS Data engineer $66K–$133K DevOps engineer $65K–$132K Geospatial analyst $58K–$107K Environmental scientist $55K–$90K Marine biologist $43K–$101K* *Source: salaries according to payscale.com

ENVIRONMENT+DATA