A group of École Secondaire Lacombe Composite High School students has earned national recognition for an innovative technology designed to help protect honeybee colonies.
Kenzie Lundstrom, Stijn Tans and Wakefield Roadhouse of United Robotics of Lacombe (URL) won the Best Prototype Pitch Video Award at the Tech Futures Challenge Workshop, hosted by MindFuel, March 7 and 8. The team competed against 31 teams from across Canada, including 26 university teams and five high school teams.
Their project, the BeeWise Hive Monitoring and Ventilation System (HMVS), impressed judges with both its technical design and its potential real-world impact.
"Winning this award against such strong competition including university teams speaks to the creativity, determination, and technical skills of these students," said teacher Steve Schultz.
The BeeWise system uses environmental sensors placed inside a hive to monitor conditions such as temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels. If conditions become unhealthy for the bees, the system can automatically adjust ventilation to improve airflow and stabilize the hive environment.
"The BeeWise project showed me how I can apply robotics and engineering to support sustainable agriculture and protect pollinators," said Tans.
The Tech Futures Challenge encourages youth and post-secondary innovators to develop solutions to real-world problems using science, technology and design. Participants build working prototypes and present their ideas through a short pitch video outlining the problem, their solution and its potential impact.
Judges selected the BeeWise team's presentation as the top prototype pitch, noting the clarity of the video and the relevance of the technology.
For Lundstrom, the experience reinforced the importance of learning through experimentation.
"Tech Futures Challenge has taught me to fail forward, taking failure in stride to improve, iterate and eventually succeed," she said.
The idea for BeeWise came from the growing challenges beekeepers face in maintaining healthy colonies, particularly during extreme weather and winter conditions. By providing better data about hive conditions, the system could help reduce colony stress and improve survival rates.
"I am honoured to be presented with such an amazing award, and for my team to be among the many innovators in Alberta changing the status quo," said Roadhouse.
The team plans to continue refining the BeeWise Hive Monitoring and Ventilation System and hopes to test the technology in working hives. If successful, the students say they may explore creating a start-up company to bring the technology to market.
United Robotics of Lacombe will present its work next at the Tech Futures Challenge Innovation Showcase on May 30 at the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary.
United Robotics of Lacombe is a student robotics and innovation team at École Secondaire Lacombe Composite High School that focuses on developing leadership, engineering skills and real-world problem solving through collaborative STEM projects.
