Cornell Students Build GPS Baton for 2,275 Seneca7 Runners, Ready $2,000 Air-Quality Drone
Updated
Updated · Cornell Chronicle · May 11
Cornell Students Build GPS Baton for 2,275 Seneca7 Runners, Ready $2,000 Air-Quality Drone
1 articles · Updated · Cornell Chronicle · May 11
A four-student Cornell team designed a baton that pings nearby receivers with GPS positions, aiming to let Seneca7 organizers track 2,275 runners across the 77.7-mile relay despite spotty cell service.
The device is being shaped around competing needs: race staff want more location data, while runners want something small and light enough to hold, clip or carry by strap through 21 relay legs.
A second student team also built a quad-copter drone for BluePrint Geneva to carry air-quality sensors near three landfills, tackling the data gaps that occur when stationary monitors lose cellular or Wi-Fi connections.
The drone was being prepared for its first test flight by semester's end, and students said the full system costs about $2,000 versus roughly $30,000-$40,000 for comparable data-gathering setups.
Both projects will pass to next semester's teams for further testing and refinement, extending Cornell's multi-semester effort to deliver low-cost tools for race operations and environmental monitoring in the Finger Lakes.
Can a $2,000 student-built drone effectively monitor landfill emissions, making citizen science a real threat to polluters?
After students graduate, who ensures these vital community tech projects continue to function and evolve?
Beyond tracking runners, could low-power networks become the new data backbone for underserved rural communities?