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Using AI to fight mosquitoes
Lloyd Sowers reports.
TAMPA - Farhat Binte Azum, 31, believes artificial intelligence can help battle the spread of diseases carried by mosquitoes like Malaria and Dengue.
This summer she earned her Ph.D. in computer science. She has developed a mosquito trap that lures the insects inside and then takes their picture.
AI can instantly recognize the species of mosquitoes known to carry these diseases.
Crews can then be deployed to eradicate mosquitoes around the trap before they spread.
Her beta version traps are currently deployed in the Tampa area.
So far, there is no sign of the more dangerous mosquitoes.
She believes AI may be able to help stop the spread of such diseases all over the world. Her work is funded in part by the National Institutes for Health.
What's next:
Farhat is working to improve the build of her traps. She believes AI may be introduced into the worldwide war on mosquitoes relatively quickly.
Dig deeper:
Farhat was inspired when her parents fell seriously ill with a disease carried by mosquitoes.
Several of their neighbors in Bangladesh died in the outbreak in 2019.
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Farhat says she chose USF because experiments were already underway on its Tampa main campus.
She was also accepted by graduate programs at the University of Maryland and the University of South Carolina.
The Source: FOX 13's Lloyd Sowers gathered the information for this story.