From Biologist to Eco-technologist: a 21st Century Conservation Tale
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF August 28, 2023
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: From Biologist to Eco-technologist: a 21st Century Conservation Tale
Speaker: Tim Shields
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time. Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
To properly attend this meeting, please:
Read and watch the content below in its entirety.
Complete the attendance survey.
Everyone is also encouraged to leave a comment in the Disqus section at the bottom of the page.
Message from our President
Greetings Members and Friends of Rotary e-Club of Silicon Valley. As President of our Club, I want to welcome you all today.
WEEKLY FUNNY WITH SHAGS
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Steven "Shags" Shagrin!
The Home Project
My husband, Ray, was attempting to build a patio for the first time. He bought 100 cement blocks. Laying them out in a pattern, he discovered the chosen area was too small.
He stacked the blocks against the house and cleared more space. The next day Ray put the cement blocks back down, only to find that the ground was too hard to keep the patio level.
He ordered a truckload of sand to be delivered the following morning. Again he stacked the 100 blocks against the house.
Observing all this, our next-door neighbor asked, "Ray, are you going to put your patio away every night?"
INSPIRATION
Every week we share a short video highlighting innovation, education, entrepreneurship, or whatever we think might inspire you to see the world in new ways.
Problem with your heart? What if a new one could be 3D-printed so that it's specific to your biological needs? Here's a cool story from MIT along those lines, shared with me by our Paella Master, Shags.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
Interesting Things to Know
Technologies inspired by nature!
Club News
Members
Remember to log in to our ClubRunner Members site at <Click here>. After logging in, please be sure to access the MyClubRunner tab, and select My Profile. Please update your personal information here, which automatically updates our club directory.
SERVICE REPORT
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.
Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
SERVICE PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES
For upcoming club projects in District 5170, check out the District 5170 website. Also, if you have some time available for projects, be sure to let your local area Rotary Club know that you are available to volunteer for their upcoming projects.
HAPPY DOLLARS: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use.
PROGRAM: From Biologist to Eco-technologist: a 21st Century Conservation Tale
SPEAKER: Tim Shields
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub or Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Hardshell Labs is working on revolutionary applications of emerging technology to solve difficult conservation problems, largely centered on reducing the conflict between birds, humans, and threatened and endangered species. Our speaker, Tim Shields, will describe these efforts and the conservation successes they have yielded, as well as the surprising benefits of the work for human safety, the reduction of losses to commercial interests, and broader social benefits that have emerged. Starting from Hardshell's core mission to attempt to save the Desert Tortoise, he will trace a story of expanding positive results for a broad array of interest groups.
Shields has had a five-decade career as a field biologist and has focused throughout on population trends of the threatened Desert Tortoise, the California state reptile, and the iconic species of our deserts. In the course of that work, he witnessed and helped document a 95% decline in their numbers. In 2011, he switched from being a mere witness to the decline to one searching for tools that can stem the losses. This was how Shields fell into the rabbit hole of conservation technology and ended up being "Tim in Wonderland."
Hardshell Labs has developed powerful tools to protect tortoises from a major threat: predation by burgeoning numbers of ravens throughout the desert. These include highly modified lasers, drones, and the use of 3D-printed fake baby tortoise lures. The company is integrating AI and internet connections to achieve effective, remote, and autonomous operation of these conservation tools. According to Shields, the big surprise has been the alignment of conservation, commercial, and social interests. They are now working on ways to prevent birds from nesting on electrical utility structures. By doing so they will reduce raven and other pest bird reproduction, reduce utility equipment loss to fires, and help prevent catastrophic wildfires. Finding these sorts of shared goals is an active effort by Hardshell and a strong motivator for making a difference in the natural community.
Members and guests, please welcome Tim Shields!
To learn more about Hardshell Labs, go to:
The Patreon page for Hardshell Labs:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=82963386
You can watch:
The Hardshell foundational TEDxBerkeley presentation from 2014:
Important Announcement - “Digital Rotarian” Full Meeting Podcasts
Announcing: Our main program speakers are now available as audio podcasts in addition to YouTube videos! Each week they are available on Spotify, Google, and Apple podcasts.
Or you can simply click below for this week’s speaker:
And our original podcast, featuring Some of the best of our previous speakers is still available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts
UPCOMING PROGRAM RECORDING SCHEDULE
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always http://zoom.siliconvalleyrotary.com/. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).
If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
THE ATTENDANCE SURVEY
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done.
We have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeups.
Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.
For all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
Important: Once you submit the Attendance Survey below, please make sure you see the confirmation message. If you get an error message instead, please try the 'submit' button again, and if that doesn't work, please refresh the page and fill out the form again. Thanks!
