MEDS 2023
Pronouns: he/him/his
Bio
Atahualpa Ayala (Ata) is a master’s student at the UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, pursuing a degree in environmental data science. Atah graduated from the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria 2010 with a degree in Forestry and a focus on global information systems (GIS). He has used his skills with GIS to support conservation work in both the public and private sectors. His work focuses on the Chaco and Mata Atlantica regions of Paraguay. Atah has designed and implemented deforestation alert monitoring system for indigenous lands, conducted studies on livestock traceability and deforestation for the Chaco region of Paraguay, designed and implemented a demarcation system for indigenous lands, and implemented an institutional GIS in the SNC, saving users more then $700,000 in licenses. Atahualpa plans to leverage his Bren education to create and evaluate environmental policies in South America, with a focus on his vulnerable ecosystems like the Chaco. His goal is to bring his passion to improve the land and environment to the field of data science.