One-man-band HiveHealthy is headed up by Vince, an eleventh grader. As a hobby beekeeper in his spare time, Vince is not only well-versed in the life and health of honey bees up close, but also the wider importance of this busy insect within managed pollination systems, which overall sustains 35% of the food supply and supports 75% of key crops globally.

Within HiveHealthy, Vince brings together this passion and knowledge of honeybees, with his interest in applying advanced computer-science tools to environmental issues. Vince was already collecting data on his own bees’ activity using radio tags and combining it with weather station data, to create a foraging behavior model for farmers. Within The Earth Prize, Vince has built further on this original model to track honeybee health and improve accuracy, via a system of internal and external cameras, sensors and a machine learning-driven app. HiveHealthy’s solution provides timely alerts to beekeepers, so that they can protect the bees and their pollination services from threats like climate change, mites and harmful crop treatments.

This is the first time Vince has taken part in a competition like The Earth Prize, where applicants present an environmental solution and build it as they go along. He’s enjoyed the process of fleshing out his idea through The Earth Prize’s framework for applicants, working on elements such as marketing and finance. Vince mentioned that one of the best parts of The Earth Prize is that it provides high school students with the opportunity to build and test a solution, getting guidance and validation from experts in their fields.

Looking to the future, he plans to continue developing his software and expand his professional network to take the solution to the next level. Offering advice for future applicants, Vince says: “If you think that you’d like to apply, you should! Absolutely give it a shot. If you really have passion for your idea, it will definitely show in the material you put together. Go for it.”