Problem solver

If you got “Solve the problem” – invitations this is the place where you can start.

Here you can write about problems in Agriculture, Ecophysiology and Environment that you have observed and give us short description how, in your opinion, to solve that particular problem.

To start problem solver, first read rules of participation, then just fill the form given bellow:

Rules of participation in contest:

    • Students of all levels and young researches (up to 5 years after PhD)
    • Language – English, Serbian, German, Italian to initially overcome language barrier.
    • In order to encourage you to make effort and write in English: only challenges on English will be subject of main award. Only best challenge of the month will be translated.
    • Problem solver of the month will earn two tickets for the cinema. Problem solver of the year will get EXIT concert tickets pack (Science is EXIT!)
    • Challenge text can identify only problem (up to 1500 characters) or offer solution too (up to 1500 characters)
    • Places for reward realisation are Novi Sad (Serbia), Vienna (Austria) and Florence (Italy).
  • Last year winner and example are given bellow the form.

If you have more questions about participation write to us at: serbia.for.excell@gmail.com


Winner 2017 - Exit tickets
Winners May 2018
Winner June 2018
Winner 2018 - Exit tickets

All problem solvers

Example:

Problem: WHO estimates that vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, with more than half of the world’s population at risk. Every year, more than one billion people are affected, of which a large proportion is due to diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. Where mosquitoes are not important vectors of dangerous viruses, they can be so annoying to destroy the tourism economy or to impede the outdoor activities, working or free time. In the last decades, several species of disease carrying mosquitoes have invaded Europe through the transport of goods, increasing international travel and climate change.

Small scale, weather driven, stage-population dynamics models can aid in making administrative decision regarding when and where to implement mosquito control strategies. The data included in these models needs to have sub-meter, horizontal accuracy with high frequency observations for the initial conditions for each model run. The main problems here are acquiring and transmitting real-time meteorological and mosquito data to a remote server where it can be run through the data assimilation algorithms and implemented in the model.

Solution: A machine to machine (M2M) system that consists of a wireless sensor network of ground sensors with automated smart traps that allow automatic, bioacoustic recognition of mosquito species and counting of the individual specimens. The ground sensors form a wireless sensor network, with the smart traps and a collective sink surrounded by miniaturized multi-sensor nodes that capture temperature [ºC] and relative humidity [%]. WSN can be designed based on IEEE 802.15.4 or ZigBee that provide low-power, low-cost and reduced data rate wireless transmissions either in point-to-point or mesh networks. Furthermore, communication through existing IEEE 802.11 and 2G-CDMA/3G networks can also be considered.

Mina Petric