05/19/2026
Burlington teen wins EU contest for robotic turtle using AI to monitor aquatic ecosystems, coral health. A Grade 10 student in Burlington, Ont., hopes his award-winning invention of a bionic turtle will help make underwater ecosystems safer and cleaner.
Evan Budz develop the autonomous bionic sea turtle robot for ecological monitoring, using artificial intelligence (AI). The invention won the first-place prize in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS).
"With my project, I've created a robot that swims underwater similarly to a sea turtle, and designed it to conduct the autonomous ecological monitoring so it's able to detect different types of threats that may occur in an underwater environment, from coral bleaching to invasive species," he told David Common, host of CBC Radio's Metro Morning. Evan, 15, was also awarded Best Project (Innovation) at the 2025 Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF) in Fredericton in June and was honoured with the Ellison Scholars Award, earning an all-expenses-paid trip to visit Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
EUCYS, an international event organized by the European Commission, showcases scientific talent from around the world. The 36th edition of the competition took place in Riga, Latvia, and attracts scientists aged 14 to 20 from 40 countries. The core prizes this year included 7,000 euros (about $11,500 Cdn) for each of the four first-place winners.
Sara Waqas, 16, from Calgary was the CWSF 2025 Best Project (Discovery) winner and came in second at EUCYS. Her research focuses on treatment-resistant schizophrenia, and the prototype drug she designed aims to restore normal brain function rather than suppress symptoms.
