Junior Kelly Young spent last summer tracking algae blooms from 438 miles in the air, via NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite, to learn more about when and where they happen.

Algae blooms occur when run-off drags excess fertilizer into bodies of water, providing the aquatic plant with abundant nutrients. Their population grows exponentially, and they consume all or most of the oxygen in the water. This creates a detrimental effect on the local ecosystem, often called a dead zone, where no life can prosper.

NASA provides open access to Landsat data so scientists can use it. Young believes that with more data on algae blooms, she can help predict and restrain their overgrowth.

“Once the blooms form, it’s really hard to get rid of them or decrease the effect that they have on the environment,” says Young, a double major in environmental studies and geography. “The goal is to be able to create a model to predict where the blooms are going to form and when they are going to form, so we are able to alert local agencies to better prevent the blooms from becoming full blown.”

Every 16 days, a satellite passes over New York’s Chautauqua Lake and Seneca Lake, measuring several ranges of light frequencies, called bands. Landsat 8 measures 11 bands, with only four of them being visible to the naked human eye.

But algae blooms in some lakes are so dense it doesn’t take a high-tech satellite to find them.

“In the summer the algae concentrations are very high so you visibly see it,” Young says. “So on an average day in the summer, if someone is walking by one of these lakes, they will be able to see the algae in a thick green color.”

Young developed a data-processing algorithm, which found that in these lakes harmful algae blooms are mainly focused in the southern basins between May and August. Findings like this help her research group narrow down the timing and location of algae blooms so eventually they can use drones to pick up more detailed readings.

Young says while Landsat data is a necessary beginning for creating a predictive model, there are some major faults that drones could fix.

“When I processed [the Landsat data] for chlorophyll, I found that some months that shouldn’t have a high concentration have a high concentration,” Young says. “That’s because the clouds distort the satellite and the data.”

Young’s research, which was funded by Binghamton University’s Summer Scholars and Artists program, received recognition on campus and beyond.

During the University’s November Geographic Information System (GIS) Day celebration, Kelly’s work won first place in the undergraduate poster competition. She also was invited to present her findings at the 2019 American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Timothy De Smet, director of Binghamton University’s Geophysics and Remote Sensing Laboratory, mentored Young throughout her summer research. He says her findings are vital in the continuation of algae bloom research, and that her inner drive is what led to the project’s success.

“She is extremely hardworking, whether it be as a campus tour guide, in class or on her research,” De Smet says. “She is smart, obviously, but also resilient — you need that grit to make it in research.”

This is not Young’s first experience researching algae; in her Brooklyn high school, she experimented using barley straw to decrease toxicity in algae. She also participated in the First-year Research Immersion program, where her group used drones.

Samantha Wong, an environmental science major and GIS minor, used drones to monitor the health of crops last summer.

A plant’s health isn’t always immediately apparent, and sometimes when the sickness is visible, it’s too late to save it. Farmers can lose large amounts of crops before being able to take any action. For small farmers like the ones Wong partnered with, the loss of any crops has a deep effect on their livelihood.

Wong worked at Shared Roots, a family-owned organic farm in Cortland county. Her drones were equipped with imaging sensors and flown over the crops to test for Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR). Plants that are considered stressed or unhealthy reflect less light and ultimately measure lower on the index. The organic farm acted as an ideal control for her data.

“I honestly didn’t realize I’d be doing this much computer work at first,” Wong says. “Trial and error has been the best way to learn, even though it can be a bit time consuming.”

Fieldwork is her favorite aspect of research, but between downloading and processing data, trial and error with new computer programs and flying the drones, Wong has developed a unique skill set.

“She actually led the writing of [the project] which is really cool,” says Jeffrey Pietras, Wong’s advisor and an associate professor of geological sciences at Binghamton. “The presentation she gave was great. She was able to say, ‘This is what I was looking at, this is why I was looking at it, these are the tools we used, and here are my results.’ … She laid it out without much guidance.”

The Brooklyn native is now devoting her time to more research with practical applications. She has re-visited a project she began through the Freshman Research Immersion program, locating abandoned oil and gas wells throughout New York. These wells pose serious threats to the environment, as not all were capped correctly and some are leaking methane into the soil.

When she isn’t trying to save the planet, Wong is the treasurer for the swimming club, which is one of her favorite ways to unwind. She also is a member of the Philippine American League and has interned with City Parks back home. There, her research experience has already come in handy when developing geographic maps of local parks. Wong hopes to return to the city to make a difference for the environment.

“Through research, you can solve any problem you want and help the environment,” Wong says. “We can make it better for the future.”

The object in his hand is a PFM-1 “butterfly” blast mine, which has one purpose: to maim, not to kill. Left over from the Soviet-Afghan conflict, these mines are ubiquitous throughout Afghanistan, with an estimated 10 million of them still out there.

Jasper Baur, a sophomore at Binghamton University, is part of a team developing a means to detect these mines using sensors mounted on drones.

Butterfly mines are Russian-made plastic explosives that trigger once 25 pounds of cumulative pressure has been applied.

“It doesn’t even really kill people, it’ll just blow off limbs,” Baur says. “And children play with them because they look like toys. It’s really bad.”

These mines have stuck around for so long because they cannot be found with a metal detector, and there’s no other means of locating them safely.

The team hopes thermal imaging can change that.

At sunrise, the mines heat up faster than the environment surrounding them, and they take longer to cool after sundown. A mine can be detected by looking for heat differences during these times.

The researchers mounted a thermal imaging camera onto a quadcopter drone to see if they could detect the mines safely and accurately. The drone takes thermal pictures every few seconds while flying that are later analyzed by a computer.

The team first tested the device in a controlled environment by hovering it over mine replicas in different sandbox environments, with successful results. This fall, researchers finished their first pilot study in a state park near Binghamton, scattering replicas throughout the park and flying the drone over to detect them.

The team is processing the data from that study, and the device is nearly finished. The researchers’ task now is to work out the kinks in detecting the mines, focusing on how easily they can be detected and how many “false alarms” (things that look like mines that are not) come up.

Eventually, they hope to develop software that allows a computer to use the mines’ temperature values and scan through photos to detect them. Baur presented this research in November at the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans.

Baur, a geology major and a fine arts minor, started this research in fall 2016, when he joined the Geospatial Remote Sensing stream of the Freshman Research Immersion program.

“Jasper is an ultra-high-achieving student,” says Timothy De Smet, research educator. “What makes him stand out is how much he actually cares.”

Baur, who plans to go to graduate school for geology or geophysics somewhere in California, says he became interested in geology as a kid.

“I had a big rock collection, I always liked collecting them,” he says. “Studying the land is very applicable to me. I was outside the other day, and noticed ‘Oh wow, this surface process is happening, and I know why.’”

Baur also has a passion for art, especially acrylic painting. He is vice president of the Binghamton University Fine Arts Society, a club that meets weekly for drawing sessions and monthly for gallery viewings in Binghamton.

“I really enjoy creating art in a social setting,” he says. “I’ll have my first gallery showing this December.”