A Musical Mosquito Repellent? These Students Made It Happen

Three students at one of the Talloires Network’s member universities are being recognized for their work to combat pandemic diseases. Pauline Mbabu, Caroline Kimathi and Nancy Adhiambo are second-year Computer Science majors at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. They created an app called Quit Mosquito that uses an ultrasonic sound to keep deadly mosquitos away:

The three ladies who formed Team Wabuni created the Quit Mosquito App, which is a mosquito repellent app that has an built-in music player to help fight mosquito bites. According to the presentation, a high frequency of 15KHZ can keep mosquitoes away. With the aid of a music player, one can link the app to avoid the ultra sound. The ultra sound emitted by the repellent will scare away the pests and confuse them. Ultrasonic sound will create stress on the nervous system of insects, causing them to immobilize and escape from the area.

Malaria is a major issue in Kenya, where 28 million people are in danger of acquiring the disease, out of a population of 40 million. The group most vulnerable to malaria infections are pregnant women and children under 5 years of age. This graphic by Internews Kenya shows the extent of the problem:

The Technovation Challenge was the first of its kind in Kenya, and it was sponsored by Safaricom Women in Tech and Akilidada. Technovation Challenge is a global technology competition exclusively for girls to create awareness, excitement, educate and inspire girls and young women in the pursuit of STEM careers.