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An NZ Hi-Tech Award is one of the technology sector’s most sought-after accolades. They have been awarded over the years to New Zealand’s most successful high-tech companies, and highest achieving individuals. Altitude Conservation is honoured to be a finalist in the 2023 NZ Hi-Tech Awards, in the ‘Most Innovative Hi-Tech Hardware Product’ category. Read more at: https://www.hitech.org.nz/news/2023-nz-hi-tech-awards-finalists-announced/

Founder Focus introduces entrepreneurs and innovators working on the next generation of new business startups, social enterprises and small businesses.

Our unique tech was developed and proven in the isolated and rugged sub-Antarctic. Endangered yellow-eyed penguin nests are difficult to locate due to thick vegetation, steep topography and inclement weather. Traditional nest-finding methods were not up to task, threatening to derail important population research.

Aerial tracking using the new Multi-Track system was instrumental to the success of a PhD research project, finding hidden penguin nests in an average of 11 minutes each (compared to over six hours for traditional searching) taking just 3% of the time! These efficiency savings freed up resources for other tasks, and research results provided valuable information for conservation and management decisions, and to update the international IUCN database.

See https://nzentrepreneur.co.nz/altitude-conservation/

For three years from 2015, Massey University Ph.D. candidate Chris Muller was on a subantarctic wildlife-tracking mission, battling near-impenetrable bush on the Auckland Islands to find the nests of yellow-eyed penguins. He quickly realised that aerial tracking would be much faster, safer, and more efficient than trying to cover the terrain on foot. “It absolutely saved my PhD. Otherwise, I would probably still be out there looking for nests!”

In the same month Chris Muller won an innovation award for co-developing drone-based VHF radio-tracking equipment for monitoring endangered species, he was challenged with cancer. Instead of throwing him off, Muller doubled down on the goal of revolutionising wildlife tracking and now has customers ready and waiting.

Massey PhD student Chris Muller has won the Innovate 2018 competition for drone-based technology that has the potential to revolutionise the monitoring of animals.  The win is further validation for Drone Ranger, a Massey ecentre incubator company, which was kick-started via Massey University’s annual Go Innovate startup contest for students with clever ideas supported by ecentre and Massey Ventures.

Monitoring the population of yellowed-eyed penguins, or hoiho, on the subantartic Auckland Islands, 465 kilometres south of New Zealand, is a task that can now takes minutes rather than hours thanks to Massey University PhD student Chris Muller’s clever drone-based technology.

Previously the subantarctic census of the bird, unique to New Zealand and one of the world’s rarest penguin species, would require researchers to crawl around thick bush in the difficult isolated terrain for hours searching for nests.  Muller thought there was a better way and embarked on his award winning idea to use drone technology for monitoring wildlife.

Innovate is a business competition where entrepreneurs have the chance to pitch to potential investors to create a viable business, presenting to judges in a live “Shark Tank” format.

Massey PhD student Chris Muller won the Innovate 2018 competition for drone-based technology that has the potential to revolutionise the monitoring of animals.