Establishing Purdue’s first biodiversity database (P1BD)

Dear Colleagues,

We are thrilled to invite you to join us in to participate in a workshop to help establish Purdue’s first biodiversity database (P1BD), co-hosted by Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF) and Purdue Institute for Physical AI (IPAI).

This project is being coordinated through ISF's Biodiversity Research Community and includes faculty from Forestry and Natural Resources, the Department of Biological Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineerings, Libraries and School of Information Sciences and RCAC.

Workshop on Establishing Purdue's 1st Biodiversity Database

Amid global biodiversity loss and the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, there is an unprecedented demand for FAIR biodiversity data from artificial intelligence and all other research communities. Purdue has many biodiversity datasets - some of which are the world's largest or the most unique - but little has been done to catalog these resources and make them available to Purdue research communities and beyond.

To address this, we will host a 4-hour workshop (both in-person and online), with the following preliminary agenda:

• Session A (2 hours): A presentation (10-15 min each) by individuals/groups on their biodiversity data capacity and/or needs;
• Session B (2 hours): A group discussion on how we can integrate existing data from various sources into a coherent biodiversity/herbaria database. How this database will be used, maintained, and updated with FAIR access.

We welcome all Purdue researchers (faculty and staff) who have digitized flora and fauna records, including (but not limited to): plant survey, forest inventory, herbaria records, plant images, vertebrate and invertebrate records, bioacoustics data, microbial records, as well as associated habitat conditions such as bioclimatic and soil information to join us for this workshop (lunch provided) and to participate in this project.

Participants will work to:

1. Help define the features of Purdue’s 1st biodiversity database to make it accessible and usable by more people;
2. Enable Purdue and the team to serve as an accelerator for all upcoming AI developments and biodiversity conservation applications;
3. Integrate personal research data, with acknowledgment of your intellectual property, and promote your IPs in international applications through the project;
4. Engage with the team and be a coauthor for a data descriptor paper invited by Scientific Data (Springer Nature, IF 11.2), and all future research publications in which your data will be used.

To help us better accommodate your schedule and other needs, please answer the following brief survey questions. Your answers will remain confidential and will be purged after the workshop. 

RSVP by June 1st 2023: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cHD0x90CNAX4Jds    

Coordinators: Jingjing Liang (College of Agriculture), Ximena Bernal (College of Science), Edward Delp (College of Engineering), Ningning Nicole Kong (Libraries and School of Information Studies), Xiaohui Carol Song (Rosen Center for Advanced Computing)

Panelists: Stephen L Cameron, Daniel Park, Rabern Simmons, Aaron D. Smith, Christopher Charles Wirth (more TBA)