AI and public data identify fishing behavior to protect hungry seabirds

The Holberton School, a San Francisco "start-up" university with a two-year curriculum, aims to provide an affordable and estimable computer science education while removing barriers to knowledge -- age, gender, ethnicity, past professional life -- typically confronted by minority and low-income students across the nation. By "teaching the population frozen out of the internet age" Holberton demonstrates how altered admissions processes and low-cost tuition plans imbue the tech sector's workforce with a more diverse array of qualified candidates.

To address the food insecurity problem among its low-income students, Columbia University launched Swipes, a meal sharing app in which students with a surplus of “meal swipes” could donate them to students in need. But when that app struggled to function and roll out properly, Columbia looked downtown to New York University, where student Jon Chin launched a similarly purposed but more effectively designed app, Share Meals. So far, the app has enabled over a thousand meal donations, and is hoping to work with Columbia to share its code and expand its donor services.

Protected species of animals and plants are illegally sold online mainly due to buyers and sellers having no knowledge of laws or the consequences to the ecosystem. Enforcement Gaps Interface (EGI) is a software which uses machine learning to determine if the animal product is illegal or not.

Canada is paving the way in marine solutions, but they didn't get there without failure first. After decades of overfishing, the country is experimenting with a sustainable commercial fishing catch-share system that has relied on quotas, leading to a full retention, fully monitored fishery.

The Kansas City school district and a group of local nonprofits are implementing a new software management system that will allow partners to access student data from a range of sources. The data-sharing agreement will paint a more holistic picture of students and, in the future, allow teachers and others to make informed interventions when appropriate.

New DNA testing technology is showing promise as a faster, cheaper way to determine if a shark fin came from a protected species, an important task to curbing the illicit shark fin trade across the world. While experts warn that the technology won't act as a deterrent to the practice, it will help authorities better track and determine if shipments are suspect.

In Jamaica, locally-led coral nurseries are working to restore the coral reef that have been lost to natural and manmade disasters. These organizations have small coral gardens where they can grow free of danger and when they’re big enough, are transported to a reef. With coral and fish being so codependent in the underwater ecosystem, the regrowth of coral has meant an increase of fish and fishing for the country, which many people rely on for their livelihood.

Coastal Shellfish, an Indigenous aquaculture company in British Columbia, is focusing on sustainable food and food security through its product Great Bear Scallops. This is the first project funded by the Costal Funds trust set up by donors, governments, and First Nations to support sustainable Indigenous-led businesses. The company has been selling scallops to several local businesses like restaurants and breweries.

A growing number of governments, companies, and nonprofit organizations are working together with new technology and data to identify fishing vessels that are breaking laws and engaging in human rights violations. Using satellite imagery and tracking signals, for example, a philanthropic company and a nonprofit worked with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to help the Ghanian navy arrest four vessels for illegal fishing practices. Technology by itself won’t stop forced labor and unregulated ships, but it can be helpful for cash-strapped governments looking to increase oversight of their fisheries.

A data analyst who is a Microsoft-certified trainer uploads videos on social media teaching digital technology skills in the Yorùbá language. The videos are free to watch and break the language barrier that arises with most English-only tech information available online.