MMAE Seminar: Matthew Spenko

The Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering welcomes Matthew Spenko, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and co-principal investigator of CARNATIONS, who will present a seminar about the XPRIZE Rainforest Competition on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, from 12:45–1:45 p.m. in room 104 of the Rettaliata Engineering Center.

Abstract

The XPRIZE Rainforest competition is a global challenge aimed at transforming biodiversity monitoring in some of the world's most vital ecosystems. Competing teams were tasked with developing technologies capable of autonomously surveying a square kilometer of rainforest in just 24 hours, followed by 48 hours of data analysis to extract comprehensive insights into biodiversity and ecosystem health. 

In this talk, Spenko will share the journey of his team, Welcome to the Jungle, from the competition's inception through the semifinals in Singapore and the finals in the Amazon Rainforest. The team, an interdisciplinary and international collaboration of roboticists, conservationists, tree biologists, DNA analysts, and geoinformatics experts, worked together to create innovative solutions for both data capture and analysis. 

The presentation will focus on Spenko’s work developing remote sensing technologies and artificial intelligence-powered tools for analyzing bioacoustic data. Additionally, he will highlight the role of the Interdisciplinary Project (IPRO) program courses taught throughout the competition, which engaged more than 125 students in addressing real-world conservation challenges and served as a testing ground for many of the team's successful ideas. 

The talk will conclude by exploring the broader implications of this work for the future of conservation technology, discussing potential pathways for scaling these solutions to make advanced biodiversity monitoring accessible to a wider range of global conservation efforts.

Biography

Matthew Spenko is a professor in the Department  of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology.  Spenko earned his B.S. degree cum laude in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University in 1999 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 and 2005, respectively.  He was an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Center for Design Research at Stanford University from 2005–2007. He has been a faculty member at Illinois Tech since 2007, received tenure in 2013, and was promoted to full professor in 2019. His research is in the general area of robotics with specific attention to mobility in challenging environments and localization safety.  Spenko is a senior member of IEEE, an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Field Robotics, and a finalist in the XPRIZE Rainforest Competition.  His work has been featured in popular media such as the New York Times, CNET, Engadget, and Discovery News. Examples of his robots are on permanent display in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.