Page 10 - Edge: Issue 6 March/April 2019

Programming Pro
Senior Zach Hohl creates a program that solves a deadly problem Story by Phoenix Boggs
< Aerial photograph of
Last winter, Zach Hohl, 12, had an idea. He had been thinking about what he was going to do for his senior project, becoming more anxious about the prospect as
deadlines grew closer.
“I knew I wanted to do something with drones. I had a
whole bunch of different failed prompts- like using drones to find broken boats after hurricanes,” Hohl said.
Hohl had had problems with his other ideas because he wanted to work on a project that would contribute to the world. His original prompts, while interesting, didn’t have much possibility for practical application.
“They wouldn’t have had any real-world results,” Hohl said.
While investigating one of his original ideas, he met with a man named Mike Knight, the Director of Brevard’s Environmentally Endangered Lands. His breakthrough moment came when Knight suggested that he focus more on invasive species.
When Hohl started working with invasive species, he realized that he could create something that could actually benefit his community. With Knight’s help, Hohl focused the projectaroundtheidentificationofaninvasivesmallleaf- climbing vern called Lygodium microphyllum. In order to recognize it, Hohl worked with a program to detect some of the identifiable characteristics of the invasive species: its acid-green hue and its tendency to look healthier than the plants around it.
“Combining those two conditions together, I was able to highlight it,” Hohl said.
The second characteristic, the ability of the vern to fare
an area in Cocoa.
Hohl’s lygodium > identification program applied
to that same photo with potential threats highlighted in red.
much better than the plants around it, is what marks it as an invasive species. It wrecks environments by taking resources from native plants and by growing over them, covering them from above. This vern poses one of the greatest threats to Florida’s ecosystem- especially the Everglades.
Hohl worked with Mr. Sean Johnston and Mrs. Shannon Behler in order to create his program, which currently has an 88.3% accuracy rate identifying the invasive Lygodium. But Hohl is still working to improve.
“I definitely want to get up to 95% or higher,” Hohl said.
Hohl’s program represents a game-changer in combating Lygodium. During his research, Hohl talked to students at the University of Florida who were conducting
research about Lygodium and devising
ways to oppose it. They were working with aerial photographs of Lygodium as well, but hadn’t been able to formulate a practical program. Hohl was the first person to create a reliable program that could assess
the location of the invasive species, which means it will now be much easier to fight against the threat to Florida’s ecosystem.
And the program is not simply theoretical; it is going to be put to use in the future to actually affect change,
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