TOPHER WHITE

Topher White spends a lot of time in trees. He’s using deceptively simple technology to tackle one of the Earth’s most pressing threats- illegal logging. Through his start-up Rainforest Connection, Topher is turning old cell phones into protectors of the rainforest. With his background in physics and engineering, he harnesses AI for good, fashioning solar-powered devices which are able to detect the sound of chainsaws in remote areas of the rainforest. Topher has placed these devices in canopies of threatened forests around the world including the Amazon, Indonesia, and locations in Africa, already covering a 1000 square miles.

Rainforest Connection partners with the local communities, tribes, and NGOs which already patrol these areas against loggers and give them a technological advantage in stopping them. It also gives regular people around the world to join the cause by donating their own phones to become “Guardians” of the rainforest. Rainforest Connection also brings the rainforest to them, as anyone can hear the sounds of the rainforest being streamed by these very devices, giving them a deeper appreciation for the environment and a bigger understanding of what’s at stake.

As rainforests play a vital role in reducing greenhouse gases, their loss accelerates the global impact from climate change. Topher’s work is not just a defensive one, but has numerous applications in the quest for learning and exploration. The same Google AI software which picks out the sound of chainsaws are being tailored to study the surrounding soundscape for unobtrusive monitoring of animal populations. This is already being put towards the analysis of spider monkey language, and to completely collect data on everything happening in the forest at once. The more we learn about these environments, the better we can protect them.

• Selected Press links: The New York Times, National Geographic, Verdict, U.S News, SNewsnet, and the Environmental Defence Fund

 Awards and accolades

• SAP Innovation Award Next-Gen Innovator 2018

• Pongo Environmental Prize 2016

• Draper Richards Kaplan Fellowship 2016

• National Geographic Emerging Explorer 2015

• Netexplo Innovation Award 2015

Talks

• TED Global (1.3million views)

• Ideacity

• World Economic Forum