Quid Pro Algae| To Bloom or Not to Bloom

Project Details

Awards & Nominations

Quid Pro Algae has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Nominee

The Challenge | To Bloom or Not to Bloom

Your challenge is to solve the mystery behind algal blooms! What factors cause blooms in some water bodies but not others, and how can we better predict their occurrence to prevent harm to aquatic and human life?

Alquid

It is a predictive application designed to decrease algal blooms around the world.

Quid Pro Algae

Hypertrophy (algal bloom) is the sudden and uncontrollable increase and growth of algae, which represents a great environmental threat to our planet.

Responsible for the production of 50% of terrestrial oxygen, the phytoplankton family is composed of two big groups called “diatoms" and “dinoflagellates” that together add up to 5500 species; 300 of its species (60 toxic) have a tendency to increase their numbers rapidly.

This event depends on four main conditions:

  • Amount of light received
  • Water salinity
  • Temperature
  • Availability of nutrients (mainly phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen)

Our challenge is to effectively predict whereand when the algal bloom is going to happen. Because of this, we created ALQUID.

ALQUID is capable of generating dynamic reports from collected information and data about algae. Users will be able to submit photos of the sea and also have access to useful information, such as the current weather, or more relevant info about the sea, like; for example, what type of algae is most common in that location.
Expert users will also have the ability to gather more complex and complete data for specific research, and be able to submit certified data straight to the artificial intelligence.

How does it work?

This application uses an algorithm that compares historic and current data extracted from different sources around the world, provided by multidisciplinary specialists (NASA, NOAA, governmental agencies, private businesses, research organizations, etc.) and any other person who sends data through our application, therefore three access hierarchies were created:

Super-administrator: Will have total control over all the application's resources, database and Artificial Intelligence.

Administrator: Intended for specialists and authorized institutions. The admin users are encouraged to supply reliable data and to correct the wrong information on the database, also make queries to the artificial intelligence and recover detail reports in agreement with the required parameters.

Casual user: They can visualize simplified information, also send photos from the application and to receive immediate answers from the artificial intelligence.