12-1pm

Gallery Hall, TFDL

Marjan Eggermont (Engineering, Uof C), Mindi Summers (Biological Sciences, U of C), and Rob Alexander (Digitization Specialist, LCR, UofC).

Over 330 species of native bees are found in Alberta. They are important pollinators and a cornerstone of every ecosystem. What Alberta’s wild bees do and how they do it also inspires designers and engineers. A recent partnership between the Department of Biological Sciences, Libraries and Cultural Resources, and Department of Mechanical Engineering has created an online digital collection of more than 360 native Albertan bees from the University of Calgary’s scientific collections. (https://cdm22007.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p22007coll13/search/searchterm/alberta%20native%20bees/field/subcol/mode/exact/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc).)

In this talk we will share information about Alberta’s native bees and how we created our digital collection. We will also discuss how engineers could take inspiration from bees.