Digitalisation Meets Sustainability

A team led by researchers from ETH Zurich made it to the finals of the competition XPRIZE Rainforest
– an international competition aims to promote the development of new biodiversity assessment
technologies to improve our understanding of the rainforest ecosystems. The prize was launched in
2019 and the semi-finals were held in Singapore in May-June 2023.

During the semi-finals, each team had 72 hours in total to complete their testing – 24 hours to
collect rainforest samples and 48 hours to analyze the findings and compile a report. 13 teams took
part in the semi-finals, including the ETH BiodivX team, who won this round of the competition and
will advance to the 2024 finals as one of 6 groups.

How did the team scan the rainforest within 24 hours? What technolgoy did they employ to sample
environmental DNA (eDNA) from inside the canopy? How did the researchers test their technology
and sampling techniques back in Zurich? What other digital technologies were used to collect data in
the rainforest? And how many samples and species did the team identify eventually? Join
Prof. Stefano Mintchev, a team member of the ETH BiodivX team and the lead of ETH Environmental
Robotics Lab (ERL), at our next Apéro Philio event to learn more!

The event will take place on 02. November 2023 at the Zurich Knowledge Center for Sustainable
Development (ZKSD) on Hardstrasse 235. An apéro riche is offered alongside an exciting talk and
interactive discussions.

Please RSVP on our event page by Wednesday 01. November free of charge.