{"id":133545,"date":"2026-01-27T14:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/133545\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T14:41:09","slug":"orlando-science-student-creates-tech-to-detect-storm-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/133545\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Science student creates tech to detect storm damage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 By\u00a0using new technology to help save lives and check for damage during floods, 15-year-old Orlando Science Schools sophomore Abigail Merchant is already taking her ideas beyond Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI noticed that there was plenty of flooding and natural disasters that happened in our area,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It caused millions of infrastructure loss and thousands of lives every single year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>A 15-year-old Orlando Science Schools sophomore has designed satellite technology to help detect flooding and assess disaster damage during a natural disaster<\/p>\n<p>Her\u00a0CubeSat uses high-resolution imagery and machine learning to assist first responders<\/p>\n<p>Merchant earned national recognition through MIT\u2019s Beaver Works Build a CubeSat Challenge<\/p>\n<p>Educators say her passion and leadership set her apart as a young innovator<\/p>\n<p>Merchant took that problem and ran with it to new heights, literally. She designed a small CubeSat designed to detect flooding, assess damage, and help locate survivors faster than current systems.<\/p>\n<p>The satellite takes high-resolution images from space, analyzes them using machine learning, and can send alerts to first responders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy going and finding the most affected areas, we are no longer sending first responders into areas with potentially no people,\u201d Merchant said.<\/p>\n<p>Merchant\u2019s work has caught national attention, earning her a spot in MIT\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/bwsi.mit.edu\/cubesat-challenge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Beaver Works Build a CubeSat Challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe try to be hard on our kids, to ask those questions. Is it marketable? How will it be successful? How will it work?\u201d said Judith Bright, the science fair director at Orlando Science Schools.<\/p>\n<p>Bright said Merchant isn\u2019t just learning, she\u2019s leading.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI met Abigail years ago back in middle school,&#8221; Bright said. &#8220;Abigail is following her passions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Merchant\u2019s drive started early.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce she broke it down exactly what she was doing, I was blown away,&#8221;\u00a0said Stephanie\u00a0Szymczyk\u00a0of Orlando Science Schools. &#8220;I\u2019m not going to lie, though. I wasn\u2019t completely shocked. From the day I met Abigail, I knew she was capable of doing things that most humans are not capable of doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, that curiosity has turned into an invention that could make a real difference and potentially save lives during disasters around the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have people around you, you have community, and there are problems that need to be solved,\u201d Merchant said.<\/p>\n<p>Merchant is still working out details on next steps for how this technology can be used in local communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 By\u00a0using new technology to help save lives and check for damage during floods, 15-year-old Orlando&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,2031,15636,2967,274,6507,770,115,1335,139,141,140,277,554,1576,278],"class_list":["post-133545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-money-tech","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-ashley-engle","tag-community-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-public-safety","tag-science","tag-technology","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}