Impact Projects

Student Innovation Portfolio

2024 Project Showcase

As a part of Albany Senior High School's impact projects, students have partnered with Blue Nature to bring their ideas to life. This allows students to get one-on-one mentoring from professionals in the industry.

Wave-Q

A drone-based water quality monitoring system allowing remote collection and testing, developed with mentorship from NIWA experts.

Hardware & Sensing

Penguin Project

Implementation of AI-enabled recognition cameras to monitor and gather vital data on the little-known Aotea Kororā population.

AI & Conservation

Plastic Waste Converter

A machine designed to transform fishers' marine plastic debris into usable 3D printing filament and other products.

Circular Economy

Seaburn

A political simulator video game developed alongside top industry developers to educate users on marine policy and environmental legislation.

Civic Advocacy

Serendipity

By Maria Savancea

Serendipity is an innovative plastic waste converter developed by Maria Savancea. Inspired by her learning of biomimicry and green tree python's impressive predatory techniques, Serendipity aims to transform plastic waste into new bioproducts through a unique conversion process. According to Savancea, while commercial conversion exists, it hasn’t yet been tapped into for the domestic market—something she plans to change. The prototype Savancea is currently developing will include key features of Serendipity, such as plastic conversion capabilities and a Bluetooth app for user connectivity.

Plastic is often seen as dispensable by most people, something to be flippantly discarded. This mindset is what Savancea aims to change with Serendipity. By giving plastic value again, she plans to start Serendipity on boats, where fishermen can convert their own plastic waste, as well as that collected from the ocean, into useful items like fishing lines, bait, and other helpful products. Savancea is about to begin building her Serendipity prototype and is collaborating with multiple partners, including Melissa Wragge, founder and CEO of Tensegrity, to help develop her project.

Be on the lookout for Serendipity; it’ll be everywhere you turn in a few years.

Written by Heather Darnely, Blue Nature Student Journalist.