The small Belgian town of Nijlen wants to be known as a bee-friendly municipality. From installing insect hotels to convincing local farmers to create flower borders between their fields, the town has worked hard to create a conducive environment. Now, the municipality is inviting citizens to support Buzzwatch, a project by the Flemish Bee Institute (VBI), which will use artificial intelligence to help reduce winter mortality. By aerial mapping and analyzing flower photos submitted by volunteer citizens, VBI’s proposed smart system will optimize installing hives close to the plants. Citizens are invited to support the initiative by casting their online vote on a website that aims to involve them in development of new AI applications in the region. The winning initiatives will get up to 125,000 euros in funding.
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