“I’ve had it for about four years now,” she said. “[I] studied, took the test, passed it, and I’ve been flying ever since.”
Johnson enjoys taking aerial shots of nature, but said she also wanted to find a way to put her skills to good use. So, using her drone, she started tracking invasive species from above.
“So, the idea of tracking invasive species started when I actually started working with the Cleveland Metroparks,” she said. “Well, actually it started way back when I was in a forest ecology class. Invasive species were everywhere. Everyone was talking about invasive species.”
Johnson said invasive species pose a potential threat to the environment. She said the images that she collects with her drone could help determine where they grow.
“Everyone’s dealing with this particular issue,” she said. “Sometimes we just don’t know enough about what’s going on, where or what’s where. I think drones can really help get that data to inform better decisions.”
To help with land protection and conservation efforts, Johnson turned this work into a business. Johnson is scheduled to pitch the idea at FutureLAND’s Pitch Cypher on Friday in hopes of winning more funding for her project.
“I wanted to enter Pitch Cypher because I was like desperate for funding,” Johnson said.
As one of the finalists, Johnson will compete for a chance to win a $25,000 grant. It’s funding the innovator said would really benefit her business.
“I would just be so excited,” Johnson said. “This would be the biggest injection of funding that we would have gotten. It takes my business a really, really long way.”
If Johnson wins, she said she hopes to create software that processes the images of invasive species.
“Our goal with this software is to make it affordable for nonprofits, for government entities, who are the entities that are doing most of the land protection,” Johnson said. “They have a vested interest and they even exist for land protection, for conservation, for sustainability, but sometimes don’t have the budget to pay for the most expensive software.”
She added that she’s grateful to the founders of FutureLAND for creating opportunities for up-and-coming innovators.
“I think like highlighting that and bringing people together, in one space, where you can see people that look like you, you know, doing things that you’re doing or doing things adjacent to what you’re doing or things in tech, like it’s just really inspiring,” Johnson said.
To learn more about the other events that are being held at FutureLAND, please visit their website.
