A 14-year-old Australian boy, Samuel Aubin, created an app called SharkMate that determines the probability of there being sharks or not on 100 beaches in his country. To do this, he uses an algorithm that takes into account factors such as water temperature, air temperature, rainfall and places where there have been sharks to arrive at a score from 1 to 10.

The creator, a third-year high school student at Illawarra Grammar School, told Australia’s Daily Mail: “I wanted to come up with a possible solution for beach-goers to make informed decisions about whether or not to go into the water.” He also explained that the goal of creating the app was to change people’s ideas about sharks. “I hope that when the public uses SharkMate, their idea of ​​sharks as ‘the monsters of the oceans’ will change to beings that are vital to our ecosystem,” he added.

As well as keeping people safe, the app aims to reduce human killing of sharks. “Without sharks our oceans would be unhealthy and there would be little biodiversity. If we are really going to make a difference in saving sharks then the first step is to reduce the stigma and myths and misconceptions about sharks,” said the little genius.

SharkMate was presented as a project at the Future Problem Solving Program's International Conference 2017 competition in the United States. Since creating the app, Aubin has teamed up with SMART Infrastructure Facility to add an aerial imaging system. He is currently working with the University of Wollongong in Australia to improve the app and make it as reliable as possible.