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The Big Idea: using AI to breed more sustainable crops

Freya Pratty

June 22, 2021 |

Sifted |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Israel

For the past 200 years, crops have been bred for yield, for feeding livestock, rather than nutritional value. However, as more people shift away from meat the industry is looking to produce crops for flavor and nutritional value. Yet, finding the right crops with the right traits can take a long time. One company is trying to speed up the process. Equinom, is a company that is using AI technology to select the best genes from each plant and then predict the outcomes. The technology has resulted in 100k acres of specialized crops.

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ShotSpotter tech eyed as possible tool in gun violence prevention

Maria McGinnis

June 21, 2021 |

The Land |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Cleveland, Ohio

An audio alert service called ShotSpotter uses audio sensors and algorithms to detect gunfire and report it to the Cleveland police. The technology is helping to bridge the gap in unreported gunfire in the city.

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In Egypt, online group Qawem saving hundreds of women from sextortion

Ihab Zidan

June 20, 2021 |

Deutsche Welle (DW) |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Egypt

The Egyptian Facebook group Qawem (Arabic for resist) helps victims of sextortion by turning threats around to target the attacker. Sextortion, in which threatened disclosure of a person's nude or other embarrassing photos are used as a tool of extortion, is illegal in Egypt. But women – the typical victims – are often reluctant to report incidents to the police, out of shame or fear. When victims report sextortion attempts to Qawem, volunteers counsel the victims while other volunteers track down the extortionists and threaten to expose them to their family or friends. About 200 cases per week get resolved.

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India's healthcare workers are busting misinformation on WhatsApp

Sanket Jain

June 17, 2021 |

The Verge |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India

Accredited social health activists (ASHA) across India fight COVID-19 related misinformation on WhatsApp. ASHAs provide basic health care to people in their villages, which puts them on the frontline of treating COVID-19 patients and educating people to dispel the many myths about the virus and its treatments. ASHAs' local interactions often identify prevailing myths, which they quickly dispel in their face-to-face exchanges and by posting in the many local WhatsApp groups that have been created. The local groups have been an effective mode of educating people and helped ASHAs gain villagers’ trust.

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Indian Cities Prepare for Floods with Predictive Technology

Deepa Padmanaban

June 15, 2021 |

Eos |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: British Indian Ocean Territory

In coastal cities in India, floods have led to hundreds of deaths and millions of people being displaced. To address the issue, scientists had to address a variety of factors: hydrology of the upstream region; river, tidal, and storm surge modeling; and a high-resolution digital elevation map of the city. A group of scientists from 13 research institutes and government organizations looked at all those factors and came up with a real-time flood forecasting system. It generated 800 flood scenarios. When it rains the model predicts the most vulnerable sites.

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The force that could redraw the peninsula of India

Kamala Thiagarajan

June 15, 2021 |

BBC |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India

In the South Indian coast, erosion is leading to disappearing beaches. A study found that this erosion was in part due to man-made structures like a harbor that was built in the late 80s, groynes, and seawalls. These structures were interfering with the natural movement of sand. To fix it, they needed a structure that could block waves but also allow sand movement, the solution? An artificial reef. It was installed and some beaches are already seeing the results.

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Meet the baroness catching paedophiles red-handed

Rosa Ellis

June 13, 2021 |

The Times |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom

The people who produce child pornography give police invaluable evidence, if it can be decoded, when they film themselves sexually abusing children. A Scottish forensic anthropologist and anatomist has helped both in the prosecution and defense of abuse cases by determining whether the hands that are seen in a video belong to the person charged with the crime. Her method of finding conclusive points of comparison now is being used to develop algorithms that could spread the detection method worldwide.

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Internet from the moon: Varsity scholar nurtures his concept on inexpensive internet.

David Owino

June 11, 2021 |

Zulani |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Kenya, Nairobi

To make internet connectivity accessible and affordable across Africa, Dr. Harold Omondi developed “internet from the moon,” a technology that uses satellite dishes to communicate with transponders placed in the moon several years ago by NASA. The transponders can send and receive information and, since the moon keeps the same side of its surface pointed towards earth, the connection cannot be lost. Still in the piloting phase, the system currently offers free internet at Jomo Kenyatta University, where over 1,200 people login every day, and has another station in South Sudan serving 300-500 people daily.

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In The Wake Of Worsening Achievement Gap, Officials Ponder Private Help For Public Schools

Ebong Udoma

June 07, 2021 |

WSHU Public Radio |

Radio |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Connecticut

Private donors and businesses are helping some Connecticut public schools provide students and their families with access to the internet, a critical need when distance learning is imposed. Long-term hopes to close the growing achievement gap between wealthy and poorer schools through public-private partnerships need more time to ripen. But some nearer-term successes include one philanthropy's grant to provide 60,000 laptops and broadband internet to students statewide who otherwise lacked access, while a grant in Norwalk put 1,000 families online to help with homework and healthcare access.

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The robot will see you now

Tom Hallberg

June 02, 2021 |

Jackson Hole News & Guide |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Jackson, Wyoming

The Da Vinci Robot allows surgeons to perform soft tissue procedures with advanced technologies like electrocautery to cauterize tissue as it cuts and 3-D camera, without having to make a big incision. The robot acts as an extension of the surgeon’s hands, replicating human movements in a more fluid and flexible way than tools used for other minimally invasive surgeries. After substantial training on the device, studies show that the robot reduces physician error and anecdotal evidence supports the laboratory finding that the robot leads to faster recovery and less pain for patients.

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