Riley Pratt

Position: Biological Consultant

Graduate student
Email: prattr [at] uci.edu

What do you do on the project? In short, my job was to advise on the biological content and structure of the virtual ecosystem in EcoRaft. I helped select the species that exist in the ecosystem and suggested how they should interact with other species and the non-living environment. I also wrote the natural history descriptions for each of the species displayed on the EcoRaft website, helped set up and take down the installation at public demonstrations, and provided general suggestions based on the reactions of participants.

How long have you been with the group? I guess I came on board spring quarter, around April.

Why are you working on the project? First off, I thought it was a neat way to make people aware of the field of restoration ecology and just a unique way to get out our message of what we do and what we're trying to find out in terms of restoration. Working with a different group entirely, like a computer science group, is really neat and I've been able to learn a lot of things I don't think I otherwise would have.

What do you think is the overall goal of the project? I think the goal is to come up with a really neat teaching tool that helps young people understand the field of restoration ecology and hopefully come away with some of the principles behind it.

What was your favorite part of [or working on] the project? It's been kind of a nice change from what I've done before this, so even though I do restoration stuff, I wasn't working with hummingbirds, so I had to learn a lot about them and research them, so it was fun learning about new organisms and plants and systems. It's really neat to see all these people with really different backgrounds can come together and make something useful.

What are your career goals/interests? Right now, I just want to finish my research and get my degree.

What are the other projects you've worked on? I haven't worked on something like this, my background is mostly in conservation biology, so I worked in Hawaii for the US Geological Survey, studying birds. Right now I'm working with a group in Puerto Rico, so I generally work with people outside of UCI.

Have you gotten any awards and/or publications? I got one publication last year and a couple of technical reports for the US Geological Survey.

Any other questions and/or answers would you like on your site? I don't think so.


Last updated: October 18, 2005