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Alumni Profiles
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lden Keefe Sampson is on a mission to drive positive environmental change through technology. In 2018, he and his business partner, Marshal Moutenot, were named to Forbes 30 Under 30: Energy. Together, they created Upstream Tech, a water intelligence software platform that combines satellite imagery, geospatial datasets, and machine learning to help environmental conservationists, energy companies, and municipalities more effectively manage freshwater resources. Upstream Tech is now informing decision making at The Nature Conservancy, The National Forest Foundation, and The Freshwater Trust. “We make it cheaper to do good things for the environment,” states Alden, who earned a B.S. in Computer Science from Tufts University. “We fill in information about the environment that organizations are missing, and then we monitor projects going forward to make sure the impacts are what the organizations are hoping for.”
Supporting Bird Health
Alden Keefe Sampson ’09 Cofounder, Upstream Tech
0 1 Alden Keefe Sampson 0 2 Upstream Tech’s machine learning models
automatically mapped these farm fields in California and suggested cost-effective changes to farming practices to improve water quality. 0 3 A map of habitat conditions in California, created
by using Upstream Tech’s machine learning models and satellite data. Blue regions are shallow water— just right for migratory shore birds. 0 4 Upstream Tech’s water intelligence software
platform
A perfect example is The Nature Conservancy. The chapter in California runs a program called BirdReturns, which pays rice farmers to flood their fields in the spring and fall to provide habitat for migrating shore birds. “It’s like an Airbnb for birds,” comments Alden. Unfortunately, the mechanical processes necessary to sustain the project were holding it back. “They had to send people out in trucks to verify fields were flooded,” explains Alden. “We were able to take historical ground observations, line those up with satellite data, and then use machine learning to build a program that can spot good shallow water habitat for birds and process maps to confirm fields are in compliance. It helped them increase the scale of that project.”
Conserving Water Resources In the agricultural realm, Upstream Tech is improving water quality and conservation on farms. The Freshwater Trust is an institution that works with farmers in the Northwest and California to make sure there is enough clean water in streams and rivers. Upstream Tech has been able to detect conditions happening on farm fields over time and then model possible changes that farmers can make to those fields to use less water and improve water quality. “In the past, you could do that whole analysis but it would take many years to collect the data and run the analysis in each location,” says Alden. Alden’s ultimate goal is to have all the water basins and agricultural fields in the U.S. mapped, and be able to provide a clear understanding of all factors affecting water health. “I want to help organizations see the path from where we are now to a sustainable world.”
