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US-based Guyanese cops Thomas Edison Patent award for tree planting invention
New Jersey –based, Chystroff Camacho has been making headlines in the news for his award -winning invention –an aerial reforestation device. The device uses drone technology to survey and replant trees in landscapes stripped by deforestation.
US- Based Guyanese Chystroff Camacho during his award acceptance speech
According to an article published by Eureka Alert, a Science News Release Website, Camacho was an engineering technology student at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), received a Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award from the Research & Development Council of New Jersey for his drone-deployed seed capsule.
According to the article, Camacho’s device, a biodegradable packet containing seeds and mineral-rich soil, is loaded into what looks like a tiny missile that is dropped from the air. With its cone tip, it is designed to perforate the ground to implant the capsule, but to also allow water to permeate in dry regions where the land is baked hard. Camacho said that the idea came about following a trip to his homeland in Guyana in his teens.
The trip opened his eyes to the growing problem of landscape decimation caused by logging. That got him thinking – and researching rates of tree loss around the world.
“My first idea was about developing some way to make the land in need of rehabilitation more productive. Land stripped of trees becomes dry and flat and can’t hold water, so I was thinking about making conical imprints that would create mini-basins for trees or crops that would be planted by hand,” Camacho recounts.
“But that got me thinking about ways to do this by air, using velocity to make the imprint, because doing it by hand is so time-consuming. And then I had the idea of including the seeds and soil.”
The drone technology replanting method has been dubbed one the best in the 21st century to combat desertification and deforestation.
In his patent application, Camacho argued that the current state of the art in aerial reforestation is “limited by lack of sufficient ground penetration and difficulties with dispersal of larger seeds.” His invention went on to win funding from NJIT, the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps programme and private angel investors, as well as awards in technology contests.
With $3,000 from the I-Corps program, Camacho and his team improved the prototype and sought out advice and customers through regional business accelerators. They caught the attention of tech entrepreneurs, prompting a $30,000 infusion from an angel investor to develop a drone platform and business structure.
This process led to the formation of an environmental technology firm, ParaTrees.
Like many start-ups, it also evolved into new ideas and markets. Most recently, the company is providing monitoring and evaluation services to forest managers, using a range of technologies such as unmanned aerial systems, IoT sensors and AI to assess forest conditions and recommend remediation.
Camacho said he was thrilled to “just be in the room with so many great, veteran inventors” at the Research & Development Council’s 40th annual Thomas Alva Edison Patent Awards at Liberty Science Center.
Among the 15 patent awardees were major corporations such Celgene, Ethicon, Nokia Bell Labs and Siemens Corporate Technology.
Camacho also thanked his parents, Nicole and Christopher Camacho, and his many mentors on the NJIT campus who helped him create his device and build it into a company with paying customers.
They include Nancy Jackson, a professor of chemistry and environmental science; William Marshall, an assistant vice president for government affairs and a director of NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Institute, responsible for its defense and homeland security innovation lab; the co-directors of the campus I-Corps programme; Michael Ehrlich, an associate professor of finance, and Judith Sheft, an associate vice president of strategic relationships and external affairs.
“As a student at NJIT and young entrepreneur, I worked closely with university professors and advisors to push the envelope surrounding the startup community on campus,” he said.
“NJIT has always been a catalyst for innovation, and it’s amazing to see the support that is being focused on student entrepreneurship with funding and training opportunities through campus programs like the Undergraduate Research and Innovation program, I-Corps and VentureLink, NJIT’s business incubator, “ he added.
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