#364b Environment Champion – Engineering Matters Awards gold winner

#364b Environment Champion – Engineering Matters Awards gold winner

From Engineering Matters by Reby Media

April 9, 2026 · 32 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the MERMAID project and its role in coral reef conservation, featuring insights from key experts in the field.

In this episode, we tell the story of MERMAID from the Wildlife Conservation Society, this year’s Engineering Matters Awards Environment Gold Champion. Emily Darling, director for coral reef conservation at WCS, describes why scientists need better ways of sharing coral data, and how MERMAID helps them do so. Rita Bento, a researcher at NYU Abu Dhabi joins the episode, in an interview recorded in January 2026, to describe the work the university has been doing with regional partners to map coral reefs in the Persian-Arabian Gulf. And Angie Braithwaite, co-founder of Blue Alliance, describes how the nonprofit organization is using MERMAID to understand the effectiveness of marine protected areas. MERMAID allows the scientists to more easily map and understand the world’s coral reefs, helping identify those that are more resilient to climate change. Its latest update adds more, using AI to speed up the slow work of identifying species in reefs. Guests Emily Darling, director for coral reef conservation, WCS Rita Bento, researcher, NYU Abu Dhabi Angie Braithwaite, co-founder, Blue Alliance Category sponsor Support for this episode and the Environment Champion Category comes from…

People in this episode

Guests: Emily Darling, Rita Bento, Angie Braithwaite

Topics covered

  • coral reef conservation
  • marine protected areas
  • environmental impact
  • AI in science
  • data sharing

Keywords

  • MERMAID
  • coral reefs
  • climate change
  • environment champion
  • marine biology

Sponsors

FuturePlus

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wildlife Conservation Society, NYU Abu Dhabi, Blue Alliance

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