Student Spotlight: Arman Omidvar’s Digital Archaeology

“Inspired by a childhood in the Chaparrals of Southern California, I found myself hooked on plants. Learning all I could about botany, I came to revere institutions like the UC Botanical Garden for the work they did in such an interesting field. Thus, one of the first things I did after arriving on campus was find work at the Botanical Garden…. As a statistics major, working alongside the amazing botanists in the Curation Department, I am able to apply my knowledge of programming, computer science, and mathematics to streamline tasks involving the Garden’s extensive database.”

Arman came to the Garden as a volunteer during his freshman year. It was clear from the start that he was a total plant nerd (just like us), but when he offered to help us streamline a file-renaming process using some more advanced coding techniques we were really impressed! His technical skills turned out to be exactly what we needed for a massive archival effort. As we embarked on what we called the “Dead Card Project” we realized quickly that Arman would be a big help. Thanks in part to a donation from the Hillside Gardeners of Montclair, we were able to offer Arman a job to help us with this project.

The “Dead Card Project”–Bridging a 40-Year Data Gap

When the Garden transitioned to an electronic database in the mid-1980s, left behind was a legacy card file containing roughly 22,000 4″ x 6″ cards, each one representing a unique accession that had previously lived and died. The Garden worked with Doxie AI (a company that specializes in using artificial intelligence to extract structured data from unstructured formats), to read the cards and create output that will allow us to finally integrate them into the Garden’s Plant Database.

Arman has been working closely with the Garden’s Assistant Curator, Sophia Warsh to edit the outputs from Doxie to make sure that they meet our needs, and collaborated on strategies for approaching the data clean-up process.

Arman helped us make sure that different authority records like taxa and collector are all formatted following our current standards, using tools like coding and AI to standardize fields in the output. Meanwhile, he is getting a crash course in taxonomy, nomenclature, and Garden history as he works through the records, asking our curators clarifying questions when presented with confusing formats.

Unlocking Insights for the Future

Soon, all this information will reside in our online database and can be used for climate and phenology insights, historical collecting patterns, recording our horticultural activities over time, and preserving historical collections that may not be recorded by any other method.

Says Garden Curator and Conservation Officer Clare Loughran: “It’s been a joy to work with him. His thoughtful questions really get at the nitty-gritty of curation that we don’t often get to explore. When we’re working together it feels like a genuine opportunity to learn from each other.”

Award-Winning Contributions

Plus, we’re pleased to announce that Arman was nominated for and received a UC Berkeley SPOT Award. Spot Awards recognize significant contributions to a specific project or task. Congratulations, Arman!

The Power of Community Support

This collaboration beautifully highlights the power of community support: a local garden club investing in a student, who then applies cutting-edge AI tools to solve real-world botanical challenges.

A huge thank you to the Hillside Gardeners of Montclair for their continued support of student projects at the Garden! Their support funds Arman Omidvar, a talented student working with our curators to unlock a massive piece of the Garden’s history.