Measuring biodiversity through listening

Modular software brings together a variety of expertise to create a new method to realistically model and analyze quantum cryptography

By Sarah Fullerton

Faculty of Science

From working for a clean energy incubator in Uganda to analyzing sales data in Munich, and monitoring biodiversity in Germany’s Black Forest, Samantha Kremer's co-op experiences have been nothing short of extraordinary.

nally from Alberta, Kremer was drawn to the University of Waterloo for its renowned co-op program, which she saw as an ideal way to gain practical experience while earning her degree. Waterloo has the largest co-op program at a research-intensive university in the world with more than 70 percent of students gaining up to two years of employment experience during their studies.  

As a fourth-year Honours Science and Business student specializing in biology, Kremer’s program led her to complete co-op terms not just in Canada but also overseas in Uganda, and even more recently, in Germany.

As an eco-acoustics and land use research intern, Kremer dove into her passion for science and biology, using eco-acoustics to monitor the biodiversity in grassland ecosystems. By training a machine learning classifier to recognize grasshopper and cricket sounds, Kremer is contributing to the development of an AI model that will allow scientists to quickly disentangle sound data and use the information as a biodiversity indicator in varying land-use intensities.