Helping our food supply with the Public Pest Network

In this virtual meetup, we're excited to be joined by the Public Pest Network (PPN). An exciting idea that started as a research project and was developed throughout Major League Hacking's "Hack the Chain" event, and subsequently during the Hedera20 Virtual Hackathon - the Public Pest Network creates a standard way to track bug flows for researchers, farmers, and local communities, utilizing the Hedera Consensus Service. During this virtual meetup the PPN team will talk about their background, the current ways academics are attempting to tackle these problems, and give a demonstration on how their platform is leveraging Hedera to improve the industry.

About the Public Pest Network -

The Public Pest Network is an upcoming platform for entomologists and extension workers to collaborate and publish important insect pest data for the public. Entomologists have collected data for varying projects for years, but have struggled when it is time to share raw data and its consequences to those outside of the agricultural world. The PPN webapp provides a faster and easier way for entomologists to enter data and distribute it using Hedera’s Hashgraph technologies that allows anyone–private citizens, agricultural specialists, other researchers or institutions–to access the most relevant and trusted information and draw meaningful conclusions from our provided tools. With PPN, our hope is that imperative pest information can reach anyone with ease.

Speakers:

Jacob Linneman is a student at Xavier University pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with a minor in music studies. Most of his free time is spent in cramped practice rooms or in the kitchen making food and drinks for his friends and family.

Lily Sutton is currently a student at the University of Kentucky. She is working towards a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a minor in mathematics. When she's not solving equations she's at home with her dogs and horses.

Bryan Racic is a Software Engineer creating ML and IOT solutions for environmental accountability by day, and is a passionate blockchain enthusiast by night. You can often hear him often grumble about the many insect specimens Katie forgets in his freezer.

Katie Grubb is an Entomologist getting her masters degree at the University of Kentucky. She works with people across Kentucky to reduce the use of toxic pesticides and has been pulled into the world of computer science by her friends Bryan, Lily, and Jacob.