In Chennai, the Madras Christian College has recently introduced an innovative method to monitor the water quality of a lake located within its expansive 300-acre campus in Tambaram. This method involves the use of a smart duck equipped with IoT technology and remote control capabilities. The duck is designed to navigate the lake and collect real-time data on various crucial parameters such as water temperature, dissolved oxygen levels, turbidity, and pH, among others. The initiative to enhance water quality monitoring in the campus lake was supported by Bisleri International Limited, who desilted the lake as part of their CSR project and provided funding for the development of a water quality monitoring prototype. A team from the MCC-MRF Innovation Park engineered a 3D-printed duck with integrated sensors and developed an accompanying app for data analysis.

Paul Wilson, the principal of Madras Christian College, expressed that the data collected by the smart duck will enable informed decision-making to preserve the lake ecosystem and wildlife within the campus. The deployment of the smart duck was envisioned by Wilson, who emphasized the importance of detecting any changes in water quality, such as increased acidity levels, to identify contamination and implement preventive measures. The duck is equipped with solar panels for power, enabling operation for up to two days without sunlight and the option for manual charging when necessary. The startup KOLOZEN, responsible for building the duck, has been successfully collecting and transmitting data for the past two weeks.

Furthermore, researchers are exploring the possibility of deploying similar monitoring ducks in other water bodies beyond the campus to monitor water quality and provide data to local authorities. Professor T Pradeep from the Department of Chemistry at IIT Madras emphasized the potential for this data to offer insights into the environmental health, changes during various seasons, and disease monitoring of water bodies. The MCC campus houses a scrub jungle inhabited by diverse wildlife, making the smart duck initiative crucial for protecting the ecological balance."Adding cameras with sensors in their eyes aids the college in monitoring the movements of wildlife on campus."