SharkPulse Validator Game

Abstract

SharkPulse is an initiative to involve citizen scientists in monitoring global shark populations. It is inspired by Stanford’s Shark Baseline Project, and it aims to collect image-based sightings of sharks from around the world to support research on ecology and conservation and increase public awareness of their conservation status. This project is currently headed by Dr. Francesco Ferretti. He is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. The team was provided with a platform to update and implement new design changes to the original website. The original website was built using WordPress for frontend CSS and HTML, with RShiny providing the backend to implement the Validation Monitor. We were tasked with converting the static framework of the website to a more dynamic and responsive framework, improving on the current gamification scheme with a better rewards system and incentives, sourcing data from streamlined pipes, and developing a convenient user authentication system across multiple social media platforms to allow users to log in and store their points. This report contains information on the original project given to the team, and the changes the team implemented as per Dr. Ferretti's request. The report also highlights work that can be attempted by future teams that build on the current project as worked on and delivered by the team.