This week our team met with representatives from Science World. Mila, Chad and Dustin took us through an overview of the problem and what methods they had in mind to solve it. This was the first time that we really understood the magnitude of the situation on the dome.

We were told how the birds’ excrement dissolves the seals between window panels on the   dome. In addition, these birds drop rocks and other objects from the frame of the dome, causing damage to the glass itself. While this discussion confirmed some of our expectations from last week’s site visit, we certainly did not expect that cleanup and re-paneling takes about one month and costs Science World about $50,000 per year!  As a result, our budget is certainly higher than anticipated. This has minimized one of the major constraints on our project.

Our group felt fortunate to have the opportunity to get a 360 tour of the geodesic dome. After discussing our brainstormed ideas, Science World officials put forth a few of their own:

1. A tripwire system, sending a slight electric shock around the frame of the dome
2. A natural extract to make standing on or in the vicinty of the dome unpleasant for the birds
3. A trained predatory bird — one that can nest safely at the dome and deter other birds from coming near

An unexpected constraint of the project is that there are laws in Vancouver preventing people from removing Seagulls from their nests. Thus, if a seagull has created a long-term nest on the site we will be unable to disturb it, and the project will be disrupted. This creates a time constraint that we were not anticipating — one that makes our job all the more exciting.

Finally, we were told that we won’t be installing the solution. Our goal is to create a formal report detailing our research on which solution would best fit the mould of the project. Science World will then review the report and decide where to go from there.