MIT student builds $250 drone anti-poaching tool to save elephants
Anika Puri saw ivory jewelry for sale in the markets of Bombay during family trips to India. The 18-year-old MIT freshman responded by building ElSa, an anti-poaching system that pairs a $250 FLIR ONE Pro thermal camera with an iPhone 6 mounted on a drone. The camera's 206×156 pixel resolution captures infrared footage that software analyzes to tell elephants apart from humans on the ground. Puri won the Peggy Scripps Award for Science Communication at the 2022 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. She has presented her work to the U.S. Department of State's Global Women's Issues Panel.
Conservation groups get access to anti-poaching technology at a price point that makes deployment in wildlife parks feasible.
Source: Five Questions with Anika Puri, winner of the $10,000 Peggy Scripps Award for Science Communication at ISEF 2022 (societyforscience.org).
Written by the HappyGood desk from the primary source linked above and checked against it. Every story links its source. Corrections: [email protected].
More from the archive
- Bringing back the American chestnut: four approaches to a forest giant's return October 14, 2026
- 5 search and rescue teams, RCMP find stranded person in canyon above Penticton October 14, 2026
- Mackenzie Macdonald, 16, heads to the Youth Olympics for Australia in taekwondo October 13, 2026
- Parksville festival volunteers help deliver record $89,270 donation October 12, 2026
- Police fetch antivenom as three Blue Mountains rescues unfold in a day October 12, 2026