Senecio Robotics: Using AI & Robotics to Help Rid the World of Mosquitos

Hanan Lepek is the CEO of Senecio Robotics, an Israeli startup that’s using AI and robotics to help rid the world of disease-carrying mosquitos (or as our podcast partners at Failure the Podcast call them, "skeeters.")

Hanan was selected to present at our Week #2 Startup Spotlight 2020 virtual showcase and won the popular vote for his pitch for this innovative startup that addresses one of the key challenges in the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) (which, according to some reading I did over on the World Health Organization (WHO) website before the Spotlight event is a form of insect birth control).

The challenge with SIT is to develop the supporting technology to accelerate the sex sorting (so only non-biting males will be released) and to automate the packaging process and the large scale release capabilities.

So that's where Senecio Robotics focused its efforts. They've developed a multi-platform solution, utilizing deep learning for the sex classification together with robotics and automation for the sorting and packaging, to the controlled release.


In this well-timed podcast (given that Massachusetts is expecting a very high rate of mosquito-borne EEE cases), that according to our hosts, tested the limits of both Skype and Bluetooth, you'll learn more about Hanan and Senecio Robotics and the important work they're doing.

Enjoy!