Caden Oconnell

Background

About Caden Oconnell

I am a graduate of the M.S. GIS Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, and have skills in spatial modeling, database management, Python, SQL, web development, remote sensing, spatial statistics, and website management.I graduated from Towson University (TU) with a B.S. in environmental sciences and minor degrees in geographic information systems (GIS) and biology. My backgrounds are in urban sustainability after working with the TU Office of Sustainability for two years, where I analyzed composting, recycling and landfill data, and created university food system StoryMaps. During my senior year, I studied extracellular electron transfer in microbial fuel cells and was awarded by the TU Department of Biological Sciences for my research. I was also able to complete an internship with MarylandView, a chapter of the AmericaView Earth Observation Consortium, where I researched correlations between Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI), temperature, and energy consumption in Maricopa County, Arizona.I completed my first DEVELOP term in Summer 2021 with the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), studying urban development and the urban heat island effect in Fairfax, Virginia. Our partners at the Fairfax County Office of Environment and Energy Coordination were able to use our research to assess population vulnerability to increasing urban heat as a result of climate change.My second DEVELOP term in Fall 2021 at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), which was a continuation of the Spring 2021 Western Montana Ecological Forecasting project. This research focused on helping our partners at Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) to assess current and future water quality in the Blackfeet Nation tribal lands by forecasting future and current habitat suitability for mustelid species (mink and otters), whose scat can be sampled to analyze contaminants in streams and rivers. In this project I acted as the team's data manager, and worked to download and organize the project's multiple datasets.