Teen Develops Flood-Detecting CubeSat – IEEE Spectrum

Presently satellites, synthetic aperture radar, and GPS are used to gather information on flood injury, observe the placement of victims, and talk with emergency responders. However know-how failures and sluggish data transmission speeds result in delays in response time, Service provider says. The rise in world flooding has intensified the necessity for extra correct and dependable strategies.

Final yr Service provider constructed what she says is a more practical solution to observe and accumulate information throughout floods: a small, cheap, standardized CubeSat built-in with artificial intelligence. The little satellites use a multiple of 10- by 10- by 10-centimeter units—which permits producers to develop their batteries, solar panels, computer systems, and different elements as off-the-shelf parts.

The CubeSat takes photographs of an space and makes use of pattern recognition to detect flooding, assess infrastructure injury, and observe survivors.

Service provider introduced her paper on the system at this yr’s IEEE Region 3 annual convention, IEEE SoutheastCon.

“IEEE is a foundational a part of my development as a younger researcher,” she says. “It turned engineering from my dream to actuality.”

Constructing a CubeSat at MIT

Service provider says her curiosity in disaster response was sparked after studying that it could possibly take a number of hours for emergency employees to obtain satellite tv for pc information.

Decided to discover a sooner technique, she started researching applied sciences and found what CubeSats can do.

“CubeSats are very agile, scalable, and able to forming constellations (multiple-satellite teams) that replace information in almost actual time,” she says. “The concept that these small satellites—which match into the palm of your hand—may ship life-saving insights sooner than conventional methods actually impressed me to push the idea additional.”

Final yr Service provider and three of her classmates had been accepted into MIT’s Beaver Works Build a CubeSat Challenge, the place groups of as much as 5 U.S. highschool college students got eight months to develop a satellite tv for pc able to finishing a space-based analysis mission.

Service provider’s crew—the Satellite Sentinels—constructed a CubeSat powered by a convolutional neural community (CNN) that may establish closely impacted flood zones and remotely accumulate information for disaster relief and environmental monitoring. CNNs analyze picture information for sample recognition.

Service provider was the group’s payload programmer and led the mission’s design and simulation efforts, which included planning, configuring {hardware}, and creating autonomous software program and algorithms to handle the payload.

The crew started by making a 3D mannequin of the system to visualise and refine the location of its elements. The know-how used—together with a Raspberry Pi, a number of sensors, and a digital camera—was housed in a transparent plastic dice.

The center CubeSat was developed by Service provider and her crew through the MIT Beaver Works Construct a CubeSat Problem. On the left is a industrial 1U CubeSat whereas on the precise is a prototype of Service provider’s present design. Abigail Service provider

The system, which value US $310 to construct, weighs about 495 grams and was remotely linked to a laptop computer by way of Bluetooth throughout ground-based testing. The pc incorporates a machine learning algorithm—written by Service provider utilizing Python—that analyzes collected photographs to detect flooding.

The CubeSat takes a high-definition picture of its environment each 2 minutes and transmits it to the laptop computer. The satellite tv for pc transfers as much as 1,500 photographs every day and shops them on a 16-gigabyte SD card.

The algorithm then analyzes patterns, together with modifications within the water’s coloration and the picture’s pixel density. When the algorithm detects flooding, the system can alert emergency responders.

“Whereas many current methods function on multihour cycles, the CubeSat captures high-resolution photographs each 2 minutes,” Service provider says. “The system can then set off alerts which might be delivered to first responders by way of SMS or e mail.”

To check their system, Service provider and her crew constructed a metropolis mannequin product of Lego blocks in an empty bathtub. They positioned the CubeSat over it, and it took photographs of the scene. They then added water and filth to make it look extra like an actual flood. The CubeSat efficiently transferred the photographs to the laptop computer, and the algorithm detected the flooding.

Out of 30 groups, the Satellite tv for pc Sentinels positioned third.

Persevering with her work at Accenture

Service provider is constant her analysis on flood-prevention applied sciences at Accenture in Richmond, Va., the place she works remotely as a payload proprietor and designer for the corporate’s CubeSat launch crew.

After the MIT program ended, Service provider determined to scale her challenge. She reached out to her former mentor Chris Hudson, the worldwide technical lead in house cybersecurity at Accenture. He supplied her an internship.

Service provider is working to make the transition from prototype to purposeful product however, she says, wants to beat obstacles she encountered together with her MIT challenge.

The principle one was that the mannequin struggled to detect flooding in variable situations. It’s as a result of the CNN mannequin wants context, she says. With out it, the mannequin can misread advanced visible cues. To repair the problem, Service provider educated the algorithm to identify flooding by figuring out colours in particular person pixels.

Transmitting photographs utilizing Bluetooth labored in her lavatory, however it isn’t fairly as helpful when CubeSats are orbiting 700 kilometers above the bottom.

“Should you’ve used a Bluetooth headset earlier than, you realize it disconnects the second you stroll away from the system it’s linked to,” she says. “That isn’t going to work when the CubeSat constellation is in orbit.”

She advised the Accenture crew change to SubMiniature Model A (SMA) antennas. The RF antennas hook up with the CubeSats utilizing an SMA connector.

“The event course of has been one of the vital formative experiences of my profession thus far,” Service provider says. “Working by way of the payload design and validation and assembly with these groups has given me a lot expertise, particularly for my age.”

Her payload is anticipated to be launched early subsequent yr.

An aerospace internship at MIT

Service provider is an intern on the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the college’s largest interdisciplinary lab, with 60 analysis teams. CSAIL is led by IEEE Fellow Daniela Rus, recipient of the 2025 IEEE Edison Medal.

The internship is distant, and Service provider conducts analysis in a laboratory on the University of Central Florida, in Orlando.

“IEEE is a foundational a part of my development as a younger researcher. It turned engineering from a dream to actuality.”

In that position, Service provider is specializing in cognitive cartography, a way for structuring advanced data into semantic maps that reveal how concepts and ideas relate to 1 one other. She makes use of embedding models, a sort of machine studying that converts data into numerical representations. The embeddings enable computer systems to acknowledge similarities and relationships between ideas, even when they’re described in several methods. The method helps an AI product perceive how concepts join, slightly than treating every bit of knowledge as remoted.

“Being one of many youngest folks within the lab is daunting,” Service provider says. “Nonetheless, I’m actually excited to be taught from engineers and researchers who’re working on the slicing fringe of the sphere.”

She says she is hoping to attend MIT or Stanford.

The way forward for IEEE

Service provider was launched to IEEE by Joe Jusai, former finance chair of the IEEE Orlando Section.

Her first private expertise with the group occurred in 2023 whereas she was conducting analysis for a science truthful challenge. She was engaged on a robotic arm that might choose up gadgets utilizing an electroencephalogram and Bluetooth. The challenge was impressed by her grandmother, who suffers from mobility points and was wheelchair-bound.

“I saved seeing IEEE talked about in each regulation and normal I discovered,” Service provider says. When she discovered about an upcoming Orlando Part assembly, she requested her mom to take her.

On the assembly, a number of members introduced their analysis. Service provider requested Masood Ejaz and Varadraj Gurupur—the chapter chair and cochair—if she may focus on her science truthful challenge.

“After presenting my work, IEEE shortly turned a neighborhood that has formed my understanding of what engineering can accomplish,” she says.

She felt on high of the world, she says, when she introduced her paper about her CubeSat challenge at IEEE SouthEastCon.

“It’s a kind of experiences that basically modifications you,” she says.

She is worked up to turn into an IEEE pupil member when she begins school, she says. She additionally has her sights set on being elected as its president sometime.

“I met Kathleen Kramer at certainly one of my native IEEE occasions earlier than she was elected IEEE president, and we spoke about my work,” she says. “After she was elected, I noticed that I might like to turn into the president of IEEE sometime.

“I hope in the future that I can step into the identical footwear as her and proceed to assist IEEE the identical approach it helped me.”