Edge AI Earth Guardians

A curated panel of world-renowned impact champions serves as advisors for the contest and helps shape the project evaluation criteria. With deep expertise in AI, business, education, open-source innovation, and go-to-market strategy, they bring invaluable insight to the challenge. Throughout the contest, we’ll spotlight their thought leadership and share the impactful work they’re leading around the world.

Jeff Reed currently leads the North American strategy and customer alliances for Microsoft embedded and IoT solutions at Avnet, a global distributor of electronic components and services. Jeff is passionate about using technology to protect wild places on the planet for future generations including his children. He lives in Montana (where he was raised), running a farm and doing conservation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Watch Jeff's inspiring TED talk on "Can AI Help Us Speak with Wolves?"

Kate Armstrong serves as Executive Director at the Interspecies Internet initiative, where she leads efforts to foster regenerative and more-than-human futures through community-driven innovation and transdisciplinary collaboration. Read her digital publication Animals in Translation: Imagining Criteria and Frameworks for Decoding Communication in Other Species.

Adam Benzion is the SVP at Edge Impulse, a Qualcomm company. He is also the Co-Founder of Hackster. A Microsoft alumni, a recovered hardware entrepreneur, and an investor, his expertise lies in building meaningful technological solutions, that can solve pressing challenges of our time - such as wildlife and environmental preservation, by means of using open source principles and community-building initiatives. Watch Adam's Hackster Café episode on "Elephant Edge".

Dr. Rajesh Natarajan is a visionary leader with over 29 years of experience driving innovation across various sectors. His expertise spans AI, IoT, edge computing, big data, and digital transformation. He currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Gorilla Technology, a leading provider of products and services in security intelligence, network intelligence, and IoT technology. Watch this video from him reflecting on the importance of building meaningful technology for O.N.E. Amazon.

Dr. AnnMarie Thomas is an award-winning educator, engineer and designer. Trained as an Ocean and Mechanical engineer, she spent 19 years as a professor, including 17 at the University of St. Thomas where she founded the Playful Learning Lab. These days she is a consultant across a wide array of education projects, including work with the incredible OceanX team on ocean education, fostering the next generation of marine researchers and engineers.

Cody Goldhahn is a Mechatronic Systems Engineer at National Geographic Society Exploration Technology Lab. Cody builds incredible cutting-edge acoustic sensing, machine learning systems to enable continuous ecological data collection, from wolves in the Yellowstone to mantas in the Pacific deep sea.

Dr. Andrew Quitmeyer is the founder of the Digital Naturalism Laboratories (aka Dinalab) in the jungles of Panama and a core member of GOSH (Global Open Science Hardware). “Digital naturalism” is where insects, plants, and tropical meet open-source tech for biodiversity research. Check out his "Mothbox" - a low-cost, high-performance insect monitor featuring a power-efficient and lightweight design that enables biologists to deploy in remote locations.