Undergraduate Research Spring 2024 / ISSUE 2

 

Cool Tool

Research technology, equipment and instruments in the Bailey College of Science and Mathematics

High-Tech Spying on Rattlesnakes

There are many cool features to the new off-grid RattleCam system for Cal Poly’s Physiological Ecology of Reptiles Lab (PERL) team.

Cool Thing 1:

A new remote control AXIS Q6215-LE PTZ Network Camera will capture day and night up-close footage of a large rattlesnake rookery in Colorado (see inset photo taken in the area where the camera will be installed in May 2024).

Cool Thing 2:

The footage will be livestreamed to YouTube from May-September 2024.

Cool Thing 3:

The camera will be connected to a 4G LTE remote control unit (in white fiberglass deck box seen in photo) custom-engineered by the Bailey College Design and Fabrication Facility staff.

Cool Thing 4:

The camera and control unit will be powered by two 525-watt solar panels and 150Ah of batteries (shown in photo).

Cool Thing 5:

The camera and components were funded by Bailey College alumni and donors passionate about supporting innovative research and outreach methods.

And the most important Cool Thing:

These tools will enable PERL director and biological sciences Professor Emily Taylor to offer excellent hands-on Learn by Doing opportunities to biological sciences masters students Owen Bachhuber (holding Bertha the gopher snake), Max Roberts (holding camera) and other student researchers observing rattlesnakes at communal denning sites to study their thermoregulation and social behavior.

To Bailey College Student and Faculty Researchers:

Email us about a cool tool that is impacting your research in beneficial or exceptional ways. A tool can include an instrument, equipment or technology.

• Learn more about the PERL Lab.
• Submit your info to be included in Research Briefs.
• See info on published research from the Bailey College of Science and Mathematics.