Archives

 This page contains links to detailed descriptions of projects.  They are provided for discussion and educational purposes.

Ethology

Ethology of Ethologists

Experiments designed to develop automated tools for analyzing both human and animal behavior using machine vision, sensors, statistical methods, expert systems, virtual agents and virtual evolution. These groundbreaking research projects were presented at several first-time conferences such as “From Animal to Animats .
Computer-Aided-Ethology (Thesis)

Y-Maze

Aquaculture

Lobster Production

LAGOSTA – The objective: sustainable aquaculture production of lobsters. By valorizing experimental research, I provided scientific expertise and development advice (method, means). My intervention also contributed to securing financing for the development of a production site and also to win the Partner Award (second place) in the Monegasque Competition 2016 of Business Creation (MonteCarlo. Monaco).

Aquaculture Production and Simulation

IFREMER (French oceanographical research institute), I contracted my consultant services to assist IFREMER in developing an Aquaculture Production and Simulation tool. The tool employed 3-dimensional tables, biological models, financial, investments, salaries, fixed / variable costs and user entered data to predict environmental and business results for 5 years. This project entailed organizing and leading many meetings, some with 25 participants, in order to establish comprehension, group consensus and clear communication. The final simulation tools were spreadsheets, which I presented at several international conferences, and when they were made available to a large public, via Internet, they became a major educational tool in several USA high schools and college aquaculture courses and were used and adapted by professionals in at several countries such as Chili and Greece.
Aquaculture Production and Simulation

Aquaculture Information Management and Simulation System"

Thalassa, Foods of Greece, SA Retained my consulting services in order to aid them design and developed an aquaculture information management and simulation system for their intensive and extensive aquaculture installations..
[button link= AIM (Aquaculture Information Management)

Analyze Experimental Fishing Data

A system to manage and analyze experimental fishing data. The project included process support for standardizing and converting existing (25+years old) experimental fishing data to reflect correct data relationships and current processing conventions. A GUI and menu driven queries, generate user accessible SQL programs for data extraction. Ten different calculation groups generate summary files based upon the extracted data. Calculations such as basic statistics (number, mean weight, body condition, etc. by sex, maturity, capture time, etc.), also stomach contents (depending on size, sex, catch time, etc.), length / sex breakdowns, migrations, environmental condition (temperature, pH, etc.) plus many others. Calculated results are stored in files and maybe combined with other query results, exported (to i.e. LOTUS, SAS) or printed as reports.
 Experimental Fishing & Statistical Analysis (PIR).
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European Aquaculture Accounting and Information Management Training Course

Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Montpellier and The Institute Biologique Marine, Crete –Greece – as a consultant I supervised 3 student interns who developed an aquaculture accounting and management training program for French, Italian and Greek aquaculture students financed by the EEC-COMETT program.

Experimental Fish Larvae-Estimating System

In addition I also developed an experimental fish larvae-estimating system for counting larvae during aquaculture production based on machine vision technology whose results were published in “Fish Quality Control by Computer Vision”. Marcel Dekker, Inc..
Larval Fish Estimation (Machine Vision with Learning)

Museum's Fish Collection

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France), as a Guest Researcher I supervised information management technology development projects designed to improve the measurement, description, classification and management of the museum’s fish collection. Technologies included machine vision, integrated databases and data acquisition tools and their integration into the Ichthyology department. One researcher from South Africa cataloged 20,000 individual fish in two months instead of the projected 2,000 maximum per month. Soon the reptiles departments used the program to measure crocodile teeth, the amphibian department measured frog skeletons and the Museum of Man used it to measure human skulls. The program was frequently demonstrated and freely distributed to member of the United Nations and eventually one equipment supply thanked me as they were sure that the many orders they received for equipment from other countries, such as India, South Africa, Chile, etc. were due to this applications.
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Nutrition

Statistics, Simulation, Nutrition and Operational Research

Operational research and database management system with built-in linear program (simplex algorithm) to optimize formulas which satisfy infant nutritional requirements. A list of foods, each food with its nutritional makeup (ie: over 40 nutrients, energy contribution, cost, etc.), is compared to a nutritional objective which fixes the maximum and minimum for each nutriment. Loading the simplex table is controlled by a third data file which contained processing instructions for each nutrient. This third file provides dynamic run time variations in processing as processing instructions, for every element, nutrient or food, could be modified and stored in the file, on-the-fly.

Nutrition and Operational Research

Fisheries

Automate the Measuring of Fish

 This project consisted of imaging and designing solutions and tools to aid automate the measuring of fish in laboratories, outdoor experimental fishing, aquaculture and professional fishing environments. We employed a variety of technologies such as electronic calipers, balances and machine vision. In partner with the Ministère de Recherche et Technologie, France, Centre de Recherches Océanographiques de Dakar-Thiaroye (CRODT), l’Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA), Senegal and IRD,). .

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French and Spanish Tuna Fishing Activities

THUNNUS – Data management and reporting system for a joint European project between French and Spanish researchers concerning tuna fishing activities in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The system stores observer’s information pertaining to the fishing boat’s course, fishing activities, catch and by-catch results and uses SQL (System Query Language) to extract data for analysis.

French and Spanish Tuna Fishing in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

Climate

Plant Adaptations to Climate Change

CNRS – Plant adaptation to climate change can be modeled. I analyzed a Centre National Research Scientific (CNRS) developed model for plant adaptation to climate change.  Which I converted by importing old models and data into an Excel application. This expanded capabilities and flexibility making it easier to comprehend and adapt by users. (Montpellier, France.

Adapt a Plant Overview

Evaluate Cloud Formation and Behavior

IRD Once again made use of my services to review and translate technical documents concerning a network of rainfall captures and river flow monitors in Africa and data transmission and processing in France. Plus as a technical consultant for a project to evaluate cloud formation and behavior, using motion analysis in relation with satellite images and ground based rainfall captures..

The California Aqueduct Resource Accounting system

The Resources Agency  Employed me to perform a detailed technical review of The California Aqueduct Resource Accounting system (CARA). The system entailed a rainfall simulation, water transportation and accounting system which was used to determine the cost of water for various entities within California such as urban, agricultural and environmental users. This system entailed hundreds of Fortan programs and data sets and had been developed over 10 years and was a sources of disaccords between stake-holders within The State of California .
[button link=”http://www.michael-spratt.com/projects/examples/california-aqueduct-resource-accounting-cara/”] California Aqueduct Resource Accounting[/button]
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Waste Water Treatment Experiments

Université des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc and the District de Montpellier, France Consulting services designed to improve monitoring of waste water treatment experiments being performed at the district’s waste water treatment plant. 

Statistical Study of Pollution "] A Consortium of Universities and Public Water companies

. Contracted me to perform a detailed data analysis and statistical study of pollution and contamination concentrations in fresh water fish.  (Client requests anonymity),
Toxins in Fresh Water Fish (AERM)

California

Environmental Data Centers

The California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) Environmental Data Center an initial project entailed a review of current and projected projects within The Environmental Data Centers (EDC). This included a review of EDC data catalogs (applications, data sources, etc.), stake-holder requirements and the EDC’s objectives. When the EDC was closed its projects and resources were disturbed to a variety of different agencies such as The State Clearing House which is another department within the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and The Resources Agency.

The California State Clearing House

The State Clearing House, also a department within The California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) “] Contracted me to provide technical support for the OPR. Specific projects included supporting the drafting of Requests for Proposals, reviewing proposed solutions, assuring the OPR conformed to relevant legal and procurement mandates and eventually aiding in the selection of vendors (computing and communication equipment, associated software, etc.) Subsequent projects entailed computerizing the processing of Environmental Impact Reports for the State of California and assisting other state agencies such as The California Housing Finance Agency (CHFA) to obtain state-of-the-art technologies.

The Resources Agency

Employed me to perform a detailed technical review of The California Aqueduct Resource Accounting system (CARA). The system entailed a rainfall simulation, water transportation and accounting system which was used to determine the cost of water for various entities within California such as urban, agricultural and environmental users. This system entailed hundreds of Fortan programs and data sets and had been developed over 10 years and was a sources of disaccords between stake-holders within The State of California.