This work has been developing for some time at Cambridge. It was 2008 when computer scientists Professor Sir Andy Hopper and Dr Andy Rice published their seminal work ‘Computing for the Future of the Planet’, which suggested using remote sensing to measure the effects of human activity on the environment. Fast forward to today: the Energy and Environment Group (EEG) led by Professor Srinivasan Keshav and Professor Anil Madhavapeddy has a range of environmental research initiatives for computer scientists to work with ecologists and plant scientists. One such project involves using tools such as remote sensing and AI to accurately assess projects addressing deforestation and to verify that money from carbon credits can confidently be invested in them. This is essential, the researchers say, because forests have a crucial role in protecting biodiversity and sequestering carbon.

As Professor of Planetary Computing Anil Madhavapeddy puts it, “The impact of human activity on the planet is shocking: we’re losing tropical rainforest at such a rate it could be gone in our lifetimes, destroying two-thirds of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. We view computer science as an accelerative process for tackling this crisis, and a way to help ecologists refine their questions and get to their solutions faster.”

Now, the University has two more committed proponents of this work in new Planetary Computing Fellows Dr Michael Dales and Dr Sadiq Jaffer.

Dr Michael Dales’s succinct profile on the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits (4C) website describes him as a ‘Creative technologist with a passion for engineering that will make the world a better place. [Many] years of experience in product design and delivery, practised in building robust systems, plus research and development experience in both industry and academia.’

These two sentences serve to capture the nature of both Planetary Computing Fellows — Michael's Tarides Planetary Computing Fellowship and Dr Sadiq Jaffer’s Bernstein Planetary Computing Fellowship — while also drawing out the unique and interdisciplinary character of the exciting work going on at the Department of Computer Science and Technology.

All made possible by philanthropy.

Output: systems and impact trump papers

Bringing computer science to ecology is vital. In the last 15 years there has been an explosion in the amount of environmental data available to researchers, thanks to space-borne sensors such as those employed by NASA to measure changes in the earth’s atmosphere, biomass and ocean life. But ecologists have been struggling to upgrade their digital skills fast enough to be able to manage and analyse the vast datasets — petabytes in size — that have resulted. This is where the Planetary Computing Fellows are helping, contributing their skills in building systems that can accelerate the process, with benefits for both planet and people.

And the fact that Michael’s and Sadiq’s careers span industry as well as academia is highly valuable. Their experiences of creating durable systems, shipping successful products and holding leadership roles enhances their ability to apply the findings of the research they are doing now.

Michael started in the Computer Lab (now the Department of Computer Science and Technology) at Cambridge and then moved on to work at Intel Research. His next steps were to a tech NGO helping improve access to technology for places where a computer-per-person doesn’t scale, and then building products for Bromium, a security startup. In his work with ecologists at the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI), ‘I assist them in analysing these vast ecological datasets quickly to power their research, but I also help build them into larger systems that need to run for the lifetime of forests projects, which can be 20-30 years, so they need industrial longevity built into them.’

Sadiq earned his PhD at the University of Warwick in mobile autonomous robotics, ‘but I figured there was no future in self-driving cars,’ he reflects wryly, ‘so I went to work for a series of startups.’ He led engineering and machine learning terms at several mobile advertising businesses, and then started and sold his own business before coming to the EEG: ‘It’s a big shift, going from the private sector’s revenue-driven atmosphere to academia’s longer-view focus on research and innovation.’

He wouldn’t have it any different, though: ‘Cambridge’s world-leading computer science department and the incredible work happening in the CCI, add up to a rare and wonderful place to work.’

Sadiq’s first major project at Cambridge was leading technology development at 4C, which was founded to sit between Computer Science and the CCI following a philanthropic donation from the Tezos Foundation. At 4C, Sadiq explains, ‘As well as doing research into tropical forest protection, we were connecting it very quickly to policy and building systems so that people can — and will continue to — use the research. These Fellowships allow us to continue that work: doing good research that can also have impact in the real world.’

Expertise, collaboration, and cross-fertilisation

Being in Cambridge plays a key role in facilitating a space where researchers with shared interests can come together. Sadiq continues, ‘In Cambridge, there is such a density of people doing interesting work in a very small geographical area. It’s hard to avoid bumping into people at random, starting conversations, exchanging ideas and getting inspiration. It reinforces for all of us the importance of our work.’

Michael agrees: ‘The CCI is a way of bringing together the right people from many different domains and organisations to tackle problems. To sit working in the common room for an hour and hear them discussing the challenges the world is facing only reinforces why we’re here, why we’re doing this — and why it’s urgent.’

This lively ecosystem is also underpinned by previous links between the researchers and the Department of Computer Science and Technology, where Michael was involved with Bromium (co-founded by Department faculty and alumni) and Sadiq with the development of the fast and secure programming language OCaml. The Collegiate system also plays a part, with Sadiq running student supervisions in Pembroke, while Michael spends time with the Department’s PhD students, helping and guiding them where he can. “That helps build up a pipeline of talented young people who are excited to work in this area,” Anil says.

And owning their own intellectual property is a huge plus too.

Philanthropy’s unique power in practice

The EEG was initially set up in 2021 with 3-year funding from a Nokia Foundation grant as well as the AI4ER CDT and focused on ecology, computer science and econometrics. Further funding from alumnus John Bernstein, Cambridge spinout Tarides, and members of the trading firm Jane Street made the new Fellowships possible, driven by the donors’ vision around ecological solutions and integrity in digital marketplaces via econometric work.

The story illustrates just how much potential philanthropy represents. Far beyond just financing, philanthropic support can genuinely change the game in terms of creativity, invention, and faster, bolder innovations.

It’s just what Tarides founder and CEO Thomas Gazagnaire had in mind: "I founded Tarides to address complex computing problems and positively impact real-world ecosystems. Our open-source contributions to OCaml are widely used in industrial applications that need the highest level of assurance and safety. Sponsoring the crucial work of planetary computing is a natural next step for us to bring these benefits to conservation science.”

He continues: “Collaboration between research and industry can leverage open-source technologies to urgently address climate change and biodiversity loss on a global scale. Tarides has been developing the next-generation SpaceOS platform to bring the benefits of cloud computing to satellite platforms, and we are excited by the productive exchange of research and code with the Centre for Earth Observation at the Cambridge Conservation Initiative."

Philanthropic funding also enables the freedom and flexibility to work across disciplines: the Fellows work with CCI ecologists, even though the latter's publicly funded grants don’t cover this collaboration. Equally, Sadiq and Michael can choose high-impact interdisciplinary projects that don’t fit the conventional funding mould.

Ultimately, it’s about genuinely meaningful work that touches lives far beyond Cambridge. As Michael puts it, ‘Why am I here doing this when I could be earning more at a startup? Because it's a unique chance to use my skills to make a change for good, and the need for us to do so is very pressing.’