Burlington teen wins EU contest for robotic turtle using AI to monitor aquatic ecosystems, coral health
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Burlington teen wins EU contest for robotic turtle using AI to monitor aquatic ecosystems, coral health

Published Sep 29, 2025 at 8:00pm

A Grade 10 student in Burlington, Ont., hopes his award-winning invention of a bionic turtle will help make underwater ecosystems safer and cleaner.

Evan Budz develop the autonomous bionic sea turtle robot for ecological monitoring, using artificial intelligence (AI). The invention won the first-place prize in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS).

"With my project, I've created a robot that swims underwater similarly to a sea turtle, and designed it to conduct the autonomous ecological monitoring so it's able to detect different types of threats that may occur in an underwater environment, from coral bleaching to invasive species," he told David Common, host of CBC Radio's Metro Morning