Tech4Good projects for every interest

Want to apply your passions to real-world issues? Not every problem has a technical solution – but some do! Some ideas to get the creativity flowing...

Agriculture:
- vertical farming and other structural/technical innovations
- sustainable options for materials and food: seaweed, hemp, edible insects for humans/livestock...
- Composting: Compost Professor and other projects by Darian Johnson
Drones for good:
- Humanitarian: Disaster relief, search and rescue, medical/PPE delivery, communication
- Renewable energy inspection, cleaning, and maintenance
- Infrastructure inspection
- Air duct inspection
- Aerial methane leak detection
- Seed dispersal for wildfire recovery
- UAV swarm displays instead of fireworks: better for wildfires, better for veterans and pets/wildlife
- Waste management, flood risk mitigation, biodiversity conservation, open UAV data for climate resilience urban planning – UNDP, "The Sky's Not the Limit: How Lower-Income Cities Can Leverage Drones", page 106+
- Jinger Zeng on positive applications for UAV technology
Projectors / non-destructive "light graffiti": spread information/awareness and apply political pressure
- Handheld Light Graffiti Projector: tutorial by Claire Cassidy
- Projection Rebellion
Political action:
- Helping people vote (voter education, organizing rides, streamlining the ID application process, ...)
- Raising awareness and pressuring lawmakers on important legislation
- Improving access to the political system
Machine learning / AI:
- Predictive maintenance – use sensors to detect potential machine/infrastructure failures before they happen
- Climate Change AI
- Clean Water AI: Detect harmful substances in water, with a global database that can be updated instantaneously before new test strips are developed or shipped
- Predictive Analytics World Climate: Conference on industry applications of machine learning in climate tech
- "Computer vision in the climate space", ft. Kaushal Bhavsar – how CV tech "helps find viable roof tops for installing solar panels in Singapore"
- “AI for Good” resource page
Medical / therapeutic:
- Emma Watch – generates “white noise” vibrations to ease Parkinson’s tremors! (See also)
- https://3dheals.com/designing-3d-printed-medical-devices – Site includes courses, events, and other content around applying 3D printing to prosthetics, etc.
Protection of wildlife and natural resources against poaching, logging, etc.
- Smart Parks / ElephantEdge
- OpenCollar (Smart Parks): "a conservation collaboration to design, support, and deploy open-source tracking collar hardware and software for environmental and wildlife monitoring projects"
Environment monitoring and recording over time
- Crowdsourced air quality
- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Seismic activity
- Water quality
- AudioMoth for wildlife monitoring
- SlothBot! Environmental sensing, at a slow pace, within a specified area
Low-impact, low-cost scientific devices (e.g., Spectra / OpenEIT for imaging)
- Foldscope paper microscope – can integrate with your phone for enhanced functions
Waste reduction or reclamation
- One of many technologies where microbes are being used!
- Horge.eu: Converting diverse types of waste to syngas
Telepresence: Remo.tv
More recyclable and biodegradable – even edible? – technologies ;)
Bio-collaboration, microbial technology, and mycelia (fungi): Collaboration with other species is an incredible way to produce some magical results!
- Bioremediation with microbes, breaking down plastics in the environment – "potential to degrade 10 different plastic types"
- Bioreactors for power: algae panels on the façade of BIQ apartment building in Hamburg
- Pleurotus fungus can digest crude oil, cigarette butts, glyphosate herbicide, and more!
- Microbial nitrogen for agriculture
- Microbes producing fuel!
- Clams as water quality sensors in Poland
Disaster relief: FieldReady.org
Hackaday Prize 2022 – inspiring projects for...
More…

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