Efraim Hammer and his group partner, Gamliel Roos, both originally from France, won the hackathon by developing a unique system to detect diseased crops through aerial photos taken by a drone.

Currently, the health risk assessment of pesticides in the European Union and in the United States focuses almost exclusively on the stated active principle. Nonetheless, adjuvants can also be toxic in their own right with numerous negative health effects having been reported in humans and on the environment. Despite the known toxicity of adjuvants, they are regulated differently from active principles, with their toxic effects being generally ignored.

The effects, or symptoms, of pesticide poisoning can be broadly defined as either topical or systemic. Topical effects generally develop at the site of pesticide contact and are a result of either the pesticide’s irritant properties (either the active and/or inert ingredient) or an allergic response by the victim.