Zooniverse- Open Project Opportunities

In the FlyTunes project on Zooniverse, I contributed to a citizen science initiative focused on understanding how road noise impacts insect soundscapes. The primary task involved listening to short audio clips recorded from various environments and identifying whether the clip contained insect sounds, road noise, both, or neither. By accurately labeling these clips, I helped researchers create a machine learning dataset that can distinguish between natural and human-made noises. This work supports the development of automated tools that analyze large volumes of sound data to monitor environmental health and biodiversity.

FlyTunes is part of a broader effort to study the ecological effects of anthropogenic noise pollution. Insects play critical roles in ecosystems through pollination, decomposition, and as a food source for other animals, but their communication and behavior can be disrupted by constant background noise from highways and urban areas. The project aims to identify patterns in how noise affects insect presence and activity, which has larger implications for ecosystem stability and conservation strategies. Participating in FlyTunes allowed me to directly contribute to real-world environmental research and gave me a greater appreciation for how small data contributions, when pooled together, can support impactful scientific discoveries in conservation and ecological monitoring.