Climate Foundation Internship

The currently deployed MPA(Marine Permaculture Array) that I helped to analyze

• Carbon cycling in the ocean including the Redfield Ratio and other theoretical frameworks

• Modeling complicated phenomena at various levels of fidelity

• The advantages and constraints imposed by working in the non-profit space

During the final month and a half of the semester I spent studying abroad in Australia, I did an internship with the Climate Foundation, a non-profit working to develop and deploy Marine Permaculture Arrays(seaweed growing platforms) to grow macro-algae for Food, Feed, Fertilizer, Fiber, and Fuel.  When I reached out to the executive director, Brian Herzen, the electric winch I built caught his eye, as the platforms would ideally be able to be depth cycled(raised and lowered) to maximize the growth of the seaweed.  The work I ended up doing for the Climate Foundation consisted of lots of research, and creating simplified models of the system architecture to determine power requirements, as well as expected loading.  I built models in python in the style of computational essays such that they would be easy to modify.  At the same time as I was doing the more theoretical modeling work, I was living in Hobart Tasmania, and seeing the more tangible work the Southern Ocean Carbon Company was doing getting ready to deploy an array in the Derwent River.  I greatly appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the work the Climate Foundation is doing and look forward to seeing the progress they continue to make in the future.

Here is a link to an informal weekly blog I kept during the internship.  pw: INTERNview