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On June 29, 2019 at 8:02 pm, I received a call from Mats mommy. She notified me her 19-year-old child, Mat had broken his neck after diving into shallow water.
I still have the voicemail she left, and I clearly remember seeing the photos of his shattered vertebrae the next day. Mat and I fulfilled about 10 years ago when his mom offered to have our family move in (she had actually only fulfilled me for a couple of minutes in a cafe) for a number of months while we were between houses.
Mat is among the most charismatic, enjoyable, athletic, and intelligent young people I understand who had actually just found out an agonizing (and possibly terrible) lesson in a lake he had swam at numerous times previously. He was weeks away from heading to the University of Michigan to study computer technology and rather he found himself remembering the minute of effect undersea, followed by the knee-jerk idea “my mom will eliminate me if I dont live.”
Mats body is recovering through exercise and determined motions, but his mind is uneasy. Mat fearlessly and immediately began work on his R internship. Intending to please, I sent him a spreadsheet that had many layers of details, consisting of how much agricultural, developed, and natural areas is in each U.S. county, and acres of each ecosystem staying in the U.S
. It likewise included the quantities of each environment remaining in the U.S. I am most amazed with the courageous coding and sheer grit I experienced from Mat.
Quick forward a few weeks. Mats body is recovering through workout and measured movements, but his mind is uneasy. His mom and I discovered ourselves talking over coffee and we rapidly hatched a strategy.
I would mentor Mat on a project that would require him to find out another computer language called R and put his new ability to work. He registered to do an internship with me, joined a loose group of trainees and volunteers called the Conservation Data Lab, and got to work.
Big Data for Big Questions
Mat fearlessly and immediately began work on his R internship. Aiming to please, I sent him a spreadsheet that had many layers of information, consisting of how much farming, established, and natural locations is in each U.S. county, and acres of each environment remaining in the U.S
. It likewise included the quantities of each environment staying in the U.S.
The author (left) and Mathurin Gagnon (Mat) © Randy Swaty
He began to examine the data by organizing, format, and carrying out exploratory analyses. That kept him busy for a while … and then concerns began to emerge.
He wondered what communities have been mostly transformed to agricultural/developed and which counties had the most natural locations? If his information exploration might become something helpful to people interested in data visualization and conservation action, I began to question.
We chose that Mat would develop a web app that would allow users to check out info related to those two concerns. We started in on creating a map that would permit users to click datasets, prompting a map to redraw, which would then hint an interactive chart with historical and current acres of each ecosystem to appear.
This kept Mat hectic for a good while, he taught himself the coding language and web app architecture which required a terrific offer of determination and imagination. After getting his first counties map to show properly, he found that the category system from which he based his map on created a complicated display screen of colors and grids.
Issues like this were common, but luckily, he had the determination, and we had the members of the Conservation Data Lab to assist.
Where Theres a Will, Theres a Web App
The result of this tough work and exercise in patience and determination is a glossy, brand-new Exploration of U.S. Land web app that can assist anyone thinking about exploring and picturing land modification and/or conversion in the U.S.
Screenshot from the Exploration of United States Land Web App
We discovered a lot from each other through this. I am most satisfied with the brave coding and large grit I witnessed from Mat.
Mat now has a much better understanding of ecosystem loss and land conversion than most likely any 20-year-old in the nation. He has actually been looking at it for months and understands the significance of seeing these ecosystems from the viewpoint of understanding what communities are left, not what environments have been lost.
I think this mindset has actually been a major consider Mats (almost complete) healing. The last time I saw Mat he was speeding along on his mtb, headed for a northern Michigan hardwoods forest.
The Conservation Data Lab was happy to support Mats healing and brave work on this helpful tool and we are delighted to share it with community at TNC and beyond.