Expedition Earth

Imagine an intensive care patient short of oxygen, fighting for breath, lungs filling with fluid, brain swelling, struggling to stay alive. The mountaineer battling towards the summit of Everest knows exactly how that feels. Ned Gilbert-Kawai shares lessons learnt through Xtreme Everest: a research project coordinated by the UCL Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine studying human systems stretched to breaking point in extreme environments to increase our understanding of critically ill patients.

How do you design digital technologies for people who have no written language? Or who have never seen a mobile phone before? This is the challenge facing the Extreme Citizen Science (ExCiteS) research group as they attempt to create a digital tool that can allow anyone, anywhere, to collect and use data for better environmental management. Drawing on case studies from the Congo Basin, this talk will look at some of the ideas and obstacles for empowering indigenous peoples in the use of digital tools to combat deforestation and wildlife poaching.

How do people use their surroundings to form their sense of community? What happens to communities when the local environment is challenging or even hazardous? Jamie O’Brien will discuss his ongoing research at UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, which seeks to map and model urban community formations in contrasting areas of Liverpool, UK, and Medellin, Colombia.