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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - A team of university students in the UAE on Saturday won a $280,000 prize for creating an environmental protection drone, in a competition aimed at promoting peaceful uses of the unmanned flying devices.

The team, composed of four students from the Abu Dhabi branch of New York University, were taking part in Dubai’s UAE Drones For Good competition, which saw entries utilizing the new technology from around the world.

The students’ Wadi Drone, which leverages commercial drone technology and proprietary software for wildlife conservation and environmental protection, also collects data in regions where deploying communications infrastructure would spoil the natural heritage, or present a human risk to physically retrieving data.

The team collaborated with the Emirates Wildlife Society and the country’s first national park, Wadi Wurayah National Park located in Fujairah, on the development of the Wadi Drone.

Their drone is a fixed wing aircraft with a 2.5-meter wingspan carrying a small communications payload that retrieves information from ground-based measurement devices.

Working with the Emirates Wildlife Society, the team’s project will be implemented in the Wadi Wurayah National Park, and will look to expand the program around the region.

Other entries at the competition aimed to change the nature of service delivery, traffic inspection, wildlife monitoring and blood supply in cases of medical emergencies.

*Al Arabiya