Underwater drones to protect penguins? Youth innovators think it'll work
The youth ocean innovation competition is run by Brilliant Labs, a bilingual non-profit.
Student teams from nine countries met at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, on Oct. 16 and 17 to pitch solutions for real ocean and climate challenges.
Students ranging in age from 12 to 18 presented their ideas to judges who are leaders in the ocean sector as part of the Global Brilliant Blue Challenge.
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The Chilean team decided to tackle the issue of nearly 500,000 salmon that escape fish farms each year, disrupting the food web of the Humboldt penguin, which is now at risk of extinction.
A drone created by students from Chile to detect fish that escape from farms. (Nathan Coleman/TWN)
"So our drone detects the salmon that escape from fish farms with AI, and that AI captures photos and videos and detects the salmon," said Constanza Saez, from the Chilean team.
Categories ranged from marine autonomous systems to healthy marine life and marine renewable energy. Ideas could be presented in French or English.
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The first-place winner for marine autonomous systems was L'Héritage, a team from Cornwall, Ont., which designed an affordable microplastics filter made from recycled plastic bottles.
Three students from Cornwall, Ont., with their microplastics filter made from recycled plastic bottles. (Nathan Coleman/TWN)
A team from Halifax took second place in the healthy marine life category for a device that collects invasive tunicates to prevent them from smothering mussels and scallops.
"One of the big things that students can take away from this is, one, the opportunities that are present locally and globally, the opportunity in the ocean space," said Halifax West High School teacher Dana Sweeney. This was his fourth year bringing students to Brilliant Blue. "This is a real frontier."
See the video above for the full story and interviews with the youth innovators.
Copyedited by Anika Beaudry, a digital journalist at The Weather Network.
