rpiack.tex

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\specialhead{ACKNOWLEDGMENTS}

\textit{The Great Zebra \& Giraffe Count} (GZGC) was powered and administered by the IBEIS team with notable help from Dr.\ Paula Kahumbu and staff at Wildlife Direct in Nairobi, Kenya.  The IBEIS team would like to thank the people and government of Kenya for supporting this research (Permit \# NACOSTI/P/14/1003/1628), with special recognition to Senior Warden of the Nairobi National Park, Nely Palmeris, and Macharia ``Michael'' Kimura of the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS).  Other contributions to this thesis were provided by Clara Machogu, Marco Maggioni, Jon Crall, Hendrik Weideman, Michael Brown, and Zachary Jablons.  I would like to thank Dr.\ Tanya Berger-Wolf, Dr.\ Daniel Rubenstein, and my master committee members, Dr.\ Barbara Cutler and Dr.\ B{\"u}lent Yener, for their valuable feedback.  I would also like to give a special thank you to my Ph.D.\ advisor, Dr.\ Charles Stewart, who has patiently guided me to this milestone of my academic career.

All of the software detailed in this thesis can be downloaded from open-source code repositories.  The IBEIS software can be downloaded on GitHub \footnote{github.com/erotemic/ibeis [Accessed: Nov. 1, 2015]} and the client-server code used during the GZGC data collection event can also be downloaded on Github \footnote{github.com/bluemellophone/[gzc-client, gzc-server] [Accessed: Nov. 1, 2015]}.  The open-source software and research detailed in this thesis was supported by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and with financial support from NSF EAGER Grant (Award \#1453503) \textit{Collaborative Research: EAGER: Prototype of an Image-Based Ecological Information System (IBEIS)}.

Lastly, but most importantly, I would like to thank my wife, Lindsay, for providing patient, never-failing support.  Her dedication to my academic career and intellectual progress has been the best example of sacrificial love I have ever had the privilege to personally experience.

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