Located just off campus near the South Quad on Lincoln Avenue sits the Robinson Bee Research Facility. Here, researchers silently work with and raise honey bee colonies, out of sight of the University’s students. However, for the student-run organization WaggleNet, this lab serves as a huge resource.
Since 2016, University students have worked alongside Engineering professor Christopher Schmitz to develop new bee-tracking software. Their work aims to transform how the beekeeping industry monitors and understands bee behavior.
WaggleNet operates through two complementary branches. The first focuses on developing what the group calls a “distributed lab” of low-cost, user-friendly sensor data packages that professional and amateur beekeepers alike can place inside their hives. The system collects audio, temperature and humidity data, which is then made available for researchers, addressing a long-standing shortage of publicly available beehive data.
“We want that data to be accessible to researchers, because right now, there’s kind of a big lack of publicly available data for bee research, and so we want to help address that gap by making this data collection package,” said Shane Andres, senior in Engineering and president of WaggleNet.
The second branch works more directly with researchers, developing specialized tools to accelerate experiments, including a bee-tagging robot. Traditionally, tagging bees with QR code-style identifiers takes significant time and effort, requiring researchers to manually attach tags to thousands of bees. The goal of WaggleNet’s robotic solution is to automate this process and speed up research to enable more frequent, larger-scale studies.
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Currently, the bee-tracking team is finalizing a prototype robot based on a modified 3D printer. The robot will not only automate tagging but also allow researchers to collect precise position and orientation data for each bee, enhancing the understanding of colony dynamics. WaggleNet hopes to start prototype testing of this model next semester.
Schmitz explained that, over the years, the WaggleNet initiative has grown far beyond what was initially envisioned. After a successful implantation of the system at the Robinson Lab, what started as simple data collection ballooned into the bee-tracking project that the students are currently working on. The group realized the potential their data had as a valuable resource for beekeepers and bee researchers and began experimenting with its use across other areas, such as bioacoustics.
The next step in WaggleNet’s work is developing an app to connect beekeepers to their hives and contribute valuable observations to research datasets. After setbacks due to COVID-19, the team is rebuilding the app with hopes to deploy it alongside real-time sensors within the next academic year.
Raina Shrivastava, sophomore in LAS and the app development team lead, highlighted the app’s potential to track hive conditions and notify beekeepers of issues such as queen loss or environmental hazards.
“If beekeepers had access to this kind of data, it would help them track disease or if their beehives had (Var)roa mites — and that leads to the early death of their hives,” Shrivastava said. “Bees are very important pollinators, so anything we can do to help protect their health is important.”
Schmitz said the reason WaggleNet thrives is thanks to University resources and community collaboration. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering provides lab space and funding, while the Student Sustainability Committee has offered multiple grants over the years. The Robinson Lab and local beekeepers supply hives and mentorship, creating a bridge between academic research and real-world application.
Beyond providing resources to the beekeeping community, WaggleNet has served as an essential career-building and professional development opportunity for its students.
“I think that the bee-tagging project that I’ve been working on in WaggleNet kind of perfectly aligns with the reasons why I chose to be a mechanical engineer,” said Arya Das, sophomore in Engineering and bee-tagging hardware team lead. “One of my favorite parts of the design process is the brainstorming, and this project has really made me think a lot. It’s a very unique challenge that I feel lucky to be working on.”
Similarly, Andres shared how working with WaggleNet since his freshman year has shaped his career path. His experience with the organization opened him up to an internship in ocean acoustics. His time there is what influenced his decision to go to graduate school to continue working in the field.
Andres said that he enjoyed being able to make direct connections between the machine learning models he was building in class and the models he was working on within the organization.
“I was going after the professor every class and asking him about WaggleNet so that I could figure out how to do that (build the model), and it was really neat,” Andres said.
As the organization continues to grow, WaggleNet remains a testament to how interdisciplinary student initiatives can create real-world impact, one hive at a time. WaggleNet will be opening applications again in the spring, and the team encourages anyone interested to apply.
“If anyone’s interested in this kind of thing, they should definitely join us,” Shrivastava said. “It’s just a really good organization. You get a lot of opportunity to work on something, and own it yourself.”
