Researchers at the University of South Florida have used artificial intelligence to develop mosquito traps in hopes of using them overseas to prevent the spread of malaria.
TAMPA — A new smart trap using artificial intelligence will be used to track mosquitoes spreading malaria in Africa. It is the brainchild of two researchers from the University of South Florida.
“I mean, mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on the planet. These are essentially hypodermic needles that spread disease,” said Ryan Carney, assistant professor of digital science in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida.
The malaria-carrying mosquito, Anopheles Stephensi, is the focus of Carney and Sriram Chellappan, professors of computer science and engineering at the University of South Florida. They hope to fight malaria abroad and work together to develop smart, artificial intelligence traps to track mosquitoes. These traps are planned to be used in Africa.
How the smart trap works: First, mosquitoes fly through the hole and then land on a sticky pad that attracts them. The camera inside then takes a photo of the mosquito and uploads the image to the cloud. The researchers will then run several machine learning algorithms on it to understand what kind of mosquito it is or its exact species. This way, scientists will be able to find out where mosquitoes infected with malaria go.
“This is instantaneous, and when a malarial mosquito is detected, that information can be transmitted to public health officials in almost real time,” Chelapan said. “These mosquitoes have certain areas where they like to breed. If they can destroy these breeding sites, land. , then their numbers can be limited at the local level.”
“It can contain flare-ups. It can curb the spread of vectors and ultimately save lives,” Chelapan said.
Malaria infects millions of people every year, and the University of South Florida is working with a laboratory in Madagascar to set up traps.
“More than 600,000 people die every year. Most of them are children under the age of five,” Carney said. “Malaria is therefore a huge and ongoing global health problem.”
The project is funded by a $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. The implementation of the project in Africa will also help detect malaria-carrying mosquitoes in any other region.
“I think the seven cases in Sarasota (County) really highlight the threat of malaria. There has never been local transmission of malaria in the United States in the last 20 years,” Carney said. “We don’t have Anopheles Stephensi here yet. .If this happens, it will appear on our shores, and we will be ready to use our technology to find and destroy it.”
Smart Trap will work hand in hand with the already launched global tracking website. This allows citizens to take photos of mosquitoes and upload them as another way to track them. Carney said he plans to ship the traps to Africa later this year.
“My plan is to go to Madagascar and maybe Mauritius before the rainy season at the end of the year, and then over time we will send and bring back more of these devices so we can monitor those areas,” Carney said.
Post time: Nov-08-2024