FW-HTF-P: Data Science to Save Bees and Transform the Future Work of Beekeepers

The world faces a worsening crisis for the bees that pollinate one in every three bites of food that humans consume. Due to colony collapse disorder, invasive mites (varroa destructor), use of pesticides, and the rise of monoculture farming, honey bees are dying at unprecedented rates. Traditional approaches to beekeeping have been unable to stem the tide of colony collapse.

The decline in pollinators also threatens economic stability. U.S. honey production since 1987 has declined precipitously and the costs of crop pollination have climbed. In the face of this situation, the future of the beekeeping workforce faces is at risk.

A better future of work for beekeeping will involve mastering research-driven practices that respond to bee health in different landscapes, and that deploy technology to monitor bee hive health and behavior.

This project involves planning for a multidisciplinary approach to upskill and transform beekeeping and the education of future beekeepers. The project is a joint effort of the George Mason University College of Education and Human Development and the School of Business (that houses the George Mason University Honey Bee Initiative), and many experts on beekeeping and data science.

The project is studying how to deploy sensors in hives to generate data colony health with measures of temperature, acoustic activity, weight, vibration, CO2, humidity, and solar radiation, and is designing a cloud computing capacity to integrate the hive sensor data with field data to scientifically describe pollinator and ecosystem health.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.