COURT HOUSE – Recent developments in tracking technology that have allowed scientists to learn about the migration habits of monarch butterflies will be the subject of a TEDx presentation at Atlantic Cape Community College.
On Thursday, Sept. 19, at 5:30 p.m., Sean Burcher, a software developer with Cellular Tracking Technology, located at Cape May Airport, will will talk about the development of cellular tracking technology to record flight patterns of butterflies.
Cellular technology is what allows people to use their cellphones every day. CTT has developed tracking devices small enough so as not to impede the flight of a butterfly and powerful enough to track them all the way to their winter breeding grounds in the mountains outside of Mexico City.
For years, scientists knew the butterflies would make the thousands-of-miles trip to get to Mexico, but they never knew what they did along the way. Technology being employed nowadays allows them to know the precise routes taken by the butterflies, where they stop and for how long. It can also help them identify feeding grounds.
Krista McConnell, director, Cape May County campus and community outreach for Atlantic Cape, said this is the first-ever TEDx event at the college.
“It’s going to be great because it’s all so very local, and it involves cutting-edge technology,” McConnell said.
She said the presentation will involve two local organizations – CTT and the Cape May Point Bird Observatory.
“This is all real-life stuff,” she said.
McConnell said the Sept. 19 program is part of a large TEDx event to be held in Cape May Convention Hall on Oct. 6. The Atlantic Cape event is considered a “salon” event, smaller than the larger event in Cape May and leading up to it.
“It’s a way of promoting the main event,” she said. “The event in September is a prelude to Cape May, and this is the first time the college has done this.”
TEDx provides a format in which speakers are limited to speaking on their topic for 18 minutes, a time selected because most people tend to lose interest if a presentation goes longer. McConnell said no one is paid for giving a presentation, which allows speakers to build their brand or to give back to the community. The benefit to them is that their presentation goes global on the web under the TEDx name.
She said Atlantic Cape is collaborating with Norris Clark of Princeton Strategic Communications, which pioneered the TEDx program in Cape May County roughly 15 years ago.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
