(Dubai) – New York University Abu Dhabi students have taken top honours at the national UAE Drones for Good Award with their Wadi Drone submission, which leverages commercial drone technology and proprietary software for wildlife conservation and environmental protection. The Wadi Drone collects data in regions where deploying communications infrastructure would spoil the natural heritage, or present a human risk to physically retrieving data. The Wadi Drone is a fixed wing airplane with a 2.5-metre wingspan carrying a small communications payload that retrieves information from ground-based scientific measurement devices.
Created by the UAE Government, the UAE Drones for Good Award invited the most innovative and creative minds from around the world to find solutions that will improve people’s lives and provide positive technological solutions to modern day issues. The National competition is dedicated to rewarding the best, most practical ideas for using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technologies to improve government services in the Emirates.
The Wadi Drone team is comprised of four NYUAD students: Martin Slosarik, Ting-Che Lin, Vasily Rudchenko, Kai-erik Jensen. Matt Karau, a visiting instructor and research associate, is the team’s faculty adviser. The team collaborated with the Emirates Wildlife Society and the country’s first national park, Wadi Wurayah National Park located in Fujairah, on the development of the Wadi Drone.
(Courtesy WAM)