A friend to rainforests: CMU prof looks to science to save biodiversity

“When a hectare of rainforest was destroyed in 1990 we had very little way of communicating that to the public, but today the measurement is much better,” he said.

The XPRIZE Rainforest competition focuses on precisely that. Competitors are working to come up with technologies able to survey 100 hectares (a hectare being about two and a half acres) of tropical rainforest in 24 hours and produce impactful insights within 48 hours. Team members are bringing expertise in areas such as biology, DNA analysis, use of drones, machine learning and artificial intelligence.