Designer: Derek Bennion Location: Macomb, Michigan, USA Category: Design for Social Impact Award: Student Runner-Up
Coral RASA

The Coral RASA is a coral reef monitoring device, which features a 360° rotational camera, hydrophone, water tester, and bleaching detection. Reefs provide billions of people with food, tourism revenue, coastal protection, and new medications worth $375 billion/year. They're among the least monitored and protected natural habitats in the world.

I wanted to create a device that really would improve upon the current methods of monitoring the coral reefs. Much of it involves diving down to the reefs with charts and comparing colors and data while underwater. The goal was to minimize the amount of dives needed, and to maximize the amount of data retrieved. Making sure this device wasn't too invasive to the life in the corals, was also a challenge. This is why i decided to have be mounted into the floor rather than in or on the corals.

Core77: What's the latest news or development with your project?

Currently my project is still in the conceptual stage, but I am entering it in a couple more competitions.The ultimate goal is to win some award money so that I can bring my concept to fruition.

What is one quick anecdote about your project?

The original design brief for my project was very broad, it was basically just to create something that will benefit our environment. So i began researching current issues, and eventually stumbled upon the coral reefs. Then, I knew that I was going to be able to have alot of fun designing this product. The coral reefs have so many unique forms, types, and colors...all of which were very inspiring.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.