A Zooniverse developer’s visit to UQ this month was a success with the University’s Hacky Hour experiencing its largest turnout yet, and a handful of research projects discussed in follow-up meetings.
Cam Allen, a core developer with Oxford University’s global citizen science Zooniverse platform, visited UQ during the week of 3–7 April.
About 20 people from UQ and QUT came to Hacky Hour on Tuesday, 4 April, knowing Mr Allen would be in attendance as a guest, to learn more about how Zooniverse can wrangle crowd-sourced help with research.
Projects discussed at Hacky Hour and in follow-up meetings ranged from ecology acoustics and bird identification through to cell biology and bioinformatics.
Mr Allen mentioned those wanting to do Zooniverse projects should look at Zooniverse’s ‘Publications’ webpage for tips on how others have used the platform.
Hacky Hour attendees were impressed at how quickly projects can go online on Zooniverse.
Potentially more Queensland research projects will be discussed with Mr Allen upon his return to Oxford.
RCC is interested in assisting projects to make use of Zooniverse. If you have a problem that could benefit from large human cohorts, please contact RCC at rcc-support@uq.edu.au. Also read how one UQ project has already used Zooniverse.
During his visit to Australia, Mr Allen also assisted with Zooniverse’s involvement in ABC’s Stargazing Live, a three-night TV event hosted by renowned physicist Prof. Brian Cox and presenter Julia Zemiro, run in conjunction with the BBC. Zooniverse’s Planet 9 project was featured in the TV event.
