Dubai: Students of the College of Natural & Health Sciences (CNHS) have once again made the entire Zayed University proud after a team of 3 CNHS students secured 2nd Prize in the Smart Environment Category at the 2022 International Student Conference on Environment and Sustainability (ISCES 2022), held at Tongji University in China.
The Project presented by the team focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in agriculture, concentrating on data collection using affordable smart technology and drones.
The “Ghaf” Project Team comprising Ms. Shamma Al Ghafri, Ms. Shamma Mohammed and Ms. Dana Al Dhaen were commended by Zayed University for their achievement.
THE TEAM
The name “Ghaf” represents the flowering tree of Prosopis Cineraria in Arabic, a plant which holds a significant cultural and historical presence in the UAE.
The project undertaken by the students at Zayed University symbolizes the nation’s forward-thinking objectives and ambitions regarding climate change, working towards safeguarding a sustainable future for coming generations.
AGRISENSOR DRONE
The solution, build on a cost-effective technology, helps gather data about the plant’s overall health and, in turn, be an active deterrent of drought or disease.
The technology adopts a special type of sensor that can gather reflectance information and project a digital image of the scene, plant vegetation stage, and leaf data.
The sensor will be attached to agricultural drones, which can spot drought using AI, which may also be used to spray the general vegetation. The sensor will gather the data on a mini-computer and relay it back to the operator.
Based on our research, we found out that by 2025, scientists estimate that half of the world’s population will live in water scarcity regions. A major solution for this problem is to use Artificial Intelligence in the irrigation of crops to determine the optimal amount of water for crop growth without excess water use or wastage.
Ms. Shamma Al Ghafri, a senior student at the College of Natural & Health Sciences remarked.
THE EVENT
Organized since 2011, International Student Conference on Environment and Sustainability (ISCES) is a collaboration between the United Nations Environment Program and Tongji University which has been running successfully over the last decade.
As part of the event, 3,000+ international students from more than 50 countries converged at Tongji University on World Environment Day.