Chennai: Madras Christian College has introduced a smart duck to monitor the water quality of a lake located within its expansive 300-acre campus in Tambaram. The IoT-enabled duck, controlled remotely, will navigate the lake to collect real-time data on seven key parameters such as water temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and pH. This lake, a significant water source on the campus, underwent desilting by Bisleri International Limited as part of their CSR initiative. They also provided funds for the development of a prototype to assess water quality. A team from MCC-MRF Innovation Park designed a 3D-printed duck embedded with sensors and an app for data reception and analysis. Principal of Madras Christian College, Paul Wilson, emphasized the importance of utilizing data for informed decision-making to preserve the campus's ecology and wildlife. The smart duck was his brainchild, aimed at detecting any changes in water quality to address contamination issues promptly. Equipped with solar panels, the duck can operate autonomously for up to two days without sunlight and can be manually charged if necessary. KOLOZEN, the startup behind the duck, has been retrieving and transmitting the data for the past two weeks. There are plans to extend this monitoring system beyond the campus to other water bodies for environmental assessment and data collection. Researchers foresee the potential of using similar ducks to monitor water bodies during different environmental conditions and to establish a hydroinformatics platform based on collected data. The MCC campus boasts a diverse wildlife population, including about 90 spotted deer, porcupines, toddy cats, and bats residing in its scrub jungle.The college installed cameras with infrared technology in order to monitor the movements of wild animals on campus.