The Institute - March 2020 - TI-12

will remotely provide him with all the
agricultural practices he needs to complete, such as when to spray pesticides,
where to spray them, and how much to
spray," Chaccour says. "The farmer can
watch over his plot from the comfort of
his own home.
"Our aim is to provide the farmer with an
affordable solution that is less expensive
than the price of applying pesticides. This
technology also helps motivate farmers
not to rely on pesticides, which drastically reduce the quality of the produce
and negatively impact the ecosystem."

NEW FEATURE
send small packets of data to and from
Based on the feedback the company has the server, and the NB-IoT will provide
received, it's enhancing its algorithms to the traps with constant access to power.
make IOTree more accurate.
Thus, farmers should be able to use the
El Turky and Chaccour are working on trap system even when inclement weather
adding Narrowband Internet of Things causes power outages.
Chaccour says the company has partcapability to their app. NB-IoT is a lowpower network standard that is expected nered with Touch Lebanon to develop
to enable a wider variety of cellular devices the traps' NB-IoT capabilities. The feature
and services to be connected to the IoT. is expected to be introduced this year.
NB-IoT functions with low bandwidth and -JOANNA GOODRICH
therefore can improve the smart traps'
This article originally appeared online as
battery life and power consumption. "Startup IOTree: A Spritz in Time Saves Crops
The startup can use the technology to From Flies."

SAVING CROPS

TI-12 | MAR 2020 | THE INSTITUTE

JOEL WONG LIGHTS UP
PERUVIAN VILLAGE

hen IEEE Student Member Joel Wong of the
University of Calgary in Canada heard about
the lack of access to energy many communities face around the world, he knew he needed to help them.
Wong, along with 11 other IEEE volunteers from the IEEE
Southern Alberta Section in Canada, traveled to Peru in
May 2019 with Canadian nonprofit Light Up the World
and the IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian
Technology (IEEE SIGHT).

IEEE Student
Member Joel Wong
[back row, second
from right] and IEEE
SIGHT Southern
Alberta (Canada)
Section members
are joined by local
technicians who
will maintain the
solar-panel system.

SRISHTI PAHEL

The company offers two levels of subscription service: premium and "freemium." Farmers with a freemium
subscription get notified of an infestation.
The premium version provides the farmer
information about what was detected-
which could include not just fruit flies
but also eggs and fungi. The price of the
premium service is still being worked
out. Both subscriptions require farmers
to purchase smart traps. The overall price
will vary depending on the plot size and
how many traps are needed.
The startup is getting assistance from
business incubators Agrytech, Flat6Labs,
and Touch Lebanon as well as the
Lithuania-based Women in Tech by Baltic
Sandbox. Women in Tech provides women
in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics fields with career guidance
and startup funding. Touch Lebanon is
the country's leading mobile telecommunications and data operator.
IOTree won the 2019 regional Global
Social Venture Competition in the Middle
East. The startup was also named the best
Lebanese solution by the Next Society,
composed of investors from France,
Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and
other countries.
"We want to raise awareness about the
struggles farmers are facing all over the
globe," Chaccour says.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-wong/?originalSubdomain=ca https://www.agrytech.org/ https://www.flat6labs.com/ https://www.touch.com.lb/autoforms/portal/touch http://gsvc.org/ http://gsvc.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-wong/?originalSubdomain=ca https://www.ucalgary.ca/ https://www.thenextsociety.co/ https://sight.ieee.org/ https://www.facebook.com/IEEESIGHT.SA/ https://www.lutw.org/ https://sight.ieee.org/ https://sight.ieee.org/

The Institute - March 2020

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