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Blueprint 2019: Oceans + Innovation focuses on developing revolutionary ideas in response to critical challenges in the world’s oceans through a thoughtful, streamlined design process. This year’s event aims to inspire actionable blueprints for sustainable and scalable technologies that make waves in ocean conservation.
SCHEDULE
TEAM LAYOUT
COMPETITION RESOURCES
Day-of Ideation Packet
Competitor Ideation Guide with all of the day-of, need-to-know information!
Conservation X Labs
Conservation X Lab’s Digital Makerspace is an online project platform on which teams can come together and propose solutions. Submit your finished projects here!
Oceans X Labs 10 Grand Challenges
This document is an assessment of the largest threats to our oceans and the opportunities for innovation to address those threats. It reviews ten grand challenges for ocean conservation, highlighting the emerging areas of science, technology, and innovation that will be the source of the next set of solutions.
SkyTruth Datasets
SkyTruth uses the view from space to motivate people to protect the environment. These datasets utilize technology to identify and monitor threats to the planet’s natural resources such as offshore drilling and oil spills, urban sprawl, fracking, mountaintop removal mining, and overfishing of the oceans.
A Research Review of Interventions to Increase the Persistence and Resilience of Coral Reefs
This resource is a consensus report on the varying genetic, ecological, and environmental intervention strategies that can be undertaken to enhance the resilience of corals.
Seafood Watch
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch® app, a model of a useful tool that inspires consumer choices, helps people and businesses choose seafood that’s fished or farmed in ways that support a healthy ocean, now and for future generations.
Competitor Resources
Resources for teams, including links for products focused on apps or websites, etc.
More resource links to come!
CHALLENGES
CONNECT
[TO CONSUMERS]
How might we align incentives with the natural world to change human behavior?
Activating the global community.
Blueprints addressing this challenge will inspire intentional and conscientious consumer choices. Projects could capture the public’s imagination through exploration,“sell” or gamify the value of conservation, or educate people on the impact of their actions.
CREATE
[CONSERVATION TOOLS]
How might we develop long-term solutions to resource scarcity in the face of a changing planet?
Targeting the causes.
Blueprints addressing this challenge will offer novel mechanisms for the sustainable use and protection of valuable biodiversity and geodiversity. Proposals could focus on spaces including anti-poaching, scientific research, and resource extraction.
DISRUPT
[DEGRADATION CYCLES]
How might we tackle existing environmental crises with proactive, post-consumption plans?
Mitigating the effects.
Blueprints addressing this challenge will promote regeneration and resilience in threatened ecological systems. These ideas could combat problems arising from issues like plastic waste, pollution runoff, and climate change.
SPEAKERS
Topher White
Founder and CEO of Rainforest Connection
Topher has experience building systems for large and small startups as well as international science projects, including four years working on nuclear fusion at ITER, in France. He has received multiple accolades for his work, including being named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a Draper-Richards-Kaplan (DRK) Fellow and an “Engineering Hero” by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Topher’s background is primarily in Physics, software development and Communication, having received a degree in Physics at Kenyon College and going on to work for years at SLAC Natl Accelerator Lab (High Energy Physics) and the ITER Organization (Nuclear Fusion) in France. Along the way, he also served as CTO for two startups in San Francisco, where he obtained industry-level experience in software development — the foundation of the Rainforest Connection platform. (Images courtesy of Tyler Roemer and Ben Von Vong)
Jonatha Giddens
Ocean Ecologist and Fellow, National Geographic Society
Dr. Jonatha Giddens is an Ocean Ecologist and Fellow with the National Geographic Society Exploration Technology Lab where she is developing a research program to assess biodiversity in the deep-sea, and better understand the biogeographic patterns and processes that form deep-ocean ecosystems. By operationalizing deep-sea exploration technology, this program will establish an index of ecosystem health while also developing human-natural connections to the deep-sea through the science, art, and storytelling of deep-ocean exploration. With a background in natural and social sciences, with training in art and traditional storytelling, and inspired by travel across land and sea, Dr. Giddens’ vision is to bridge artistic and scientific methods, in companionship with technology, to imagine and create a brighter future for our ocean planet. (Images courtesy of Jon Tadiello and Taylor Mickal)
Ted Janulis
Senior Advisor, Constellation Research & Technology
Theodore P. (Ted) Janulis currently serves as Senior Advisor to Constellation Research & Technology, a sustainable investing analytics and advisory firm. He is the founder and principal of Investable Oceans, whose mission is to direct capital to the most pressing needs of our oceans, and serves on the boards of several for-profit and charitable organizations. Previously Ted spent 30 years in the financial services industry after receiving an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from Columbia Business School. Ted’s passion for the oceans dates to his earliest days. He has been diving for 45 years, was the 1981 recipient of the Rolex/Our World Underwater Scholarship, and recently served for three years as President of The Explorers Club in New York, where he continues to serve on the Board.
Winnie Lau
Senior Officer, Preventing Ocean Plastics at The Pew Charitable Trusts
Dr. Winnie Lau is Senior Officer, Preventing Ocean Plastics at The Pew Charitable Trusts, with the goal of creating a global roadmap aimed at reducing the amount of plastic entering the ocean. Winnie also worked on Pew’s International Conservation team developing strategies for marine protected areas, new projects, and partnerships in Asia. Prior to Pew, Winnie served as the Climate Change Science and Technology Adviser for the USAID Mission to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Manager of the Marine Ecosystem Services Program at Forest Trends, and an American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of State. Trained as an oceanographer and environmental scientist, Winnie is passionate about bridging science and policy to protect our ocean.
Andrew Thaler
CEO of Blackbeard Biologic
Andrew Thaler is a deep-sea ecologist and open-source hardware developer. His primary research focuses on the impact of human activities at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. He is the founder of Oceanography for Everyone, a program to develop low-cost, open-source tools for marine science, education, and exploration. He is the editor-in-chief of Southern Fried Science, among the most widely read English-language marine science and conservation websites.
MENTORS
PARKING
Blueprint parking is available in the Bryan Center Parking Garage (PGIV). On Friday, 2/1, public parking will be available for $5 with no time limit. On Saturday, 2/2, parking costs $2/hour up to $12/day.
Parking passes will be provided free-of-charge to mentors and speakers.
In addition, Blueprint has a limited number of parking passes available to attendees. These will be made available on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request a parking pass contact dukeblueprint@gmail.com.
2019 Partners
