"Scrute la nature": a mobile application to preserve biodiversity - Carnot Télécom & Société numérique

Télécom Saint-Étienne has a strong commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This approach is reflected in the school's determination to train engineers who are aware of their responsibilities and committed to a responsible digital future. But it's not just the students who are involved. " We want to do our bit for the environment, " says Hubert Konik, director of development, innovation and work-study at Télécom Saint-Étienne. " We have therefore set up an RSDD commission, open to all staff, which aims to identify and support projects that contribute to this objective, for the training of engineering students, of course, but also throughout our operations as an organization. We are working with our university partners to produce green electricity to power our site. And we're also working to respect biodiversity on our premises.

The LPO, a major player in the protection of biodiversity

This is why the school has turned to the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (AuRA) branch of the French League for Bird Protection (LPO). Contrary to what its name might suggest - it derives its origins from its initial fight to protect one bird species, the Atlantic puffin - the association, founded in 1912, works to preserve all biodiversity. " Our actions can be broken down into three main areas," explains Béatrice Jankowiak, in charge of the LPO AuRA's activities. " Firstly, the production of knowledge in the field, with studies on the evolution of animal populations, enabling us to warn of the decline of certain species. Secondly, actions to protect the habitat and environment of local flora and fauna. And finally, an awareness-raising activity aimed at the general public, from crèches to retirement homes, including businesses and local authorities. "

For example, in the AuRA region, the LPO has carried out a number of range and breeding monitoring studies for species such as the eagle-owl and the red kite. The association is also active in protecting falcon nests on climbing routes, harrier nests on farmland or fallow land, and bat sites.

Two partners committed to biodiversity

The first aim of the partnership between Télécom Saint-Étienne and the LPO was to make the school an LPO refuge. " It ' s about setting in motion a process of progress to promote biodiversity on its site," explains Béatrice Jankowiak. " This involves a diagnosis carried out by the LPO, including an inventory of the species present on site, leading to recommendations for action to preserve them and improve conditions for other species. This first fruitful collaboration then led to the signing of a partnership agreement between the two entities to extend their cooperation, still based on the preservation of biodiversity and the environment.

For example, the LPO has welcomed students from Télécom Saint-Étienne to its nature work camps, so that they can contribute to setting up biodiversity facilities and restoring natural habitats outside their school premises. What's more, during their studies, future engineers can even get more involved, as part of their engineering projects (PING) and research or innovation projects (PRI). Each year, they can choose from a wide range of subjects proposed by the LPO AuRA.

Discover local biodiversity with your smartphone

This is precisely how a collaboration between the two partners came about, taking full advantage of their complementarity: the "Scrute la nature" mobile application. The initiative was prompted by a need on the part of Saint-Étienne Métropole. " At the LPO, we had collected a large amount of naturalist data," explains Béatrice Jankowiak. "As part of its communal biodiversity atlas, the metropolis wanted a way of sharing and promoting this data with the general public, in collaboration with the communes in the area. We came up with the idea of a treasure hunt to discover local biodiversity.

The LPO approached Télécom Saint-Étienne in the hope of seeing its idea materialize in the form of a mobile application, to be developed by students at the school. " We then devoted a student project to this mission, with students who were also motivated by these issues ", Hubert Konik points out. The students - supervised by teacher-researchers from the Hubert Curien laboratory, to which the school belongs - developed an Android application to meet the association's requirements. The game, which is aimed at a family audience, includes several routes specific to each partner town, inviting users to discover local biodiversity through anecdotes, games and riddles to decipher.

The development of a mobile application to meet the challenge of sobriety

To make the information as accessible as possible, the application had to be easy to use. An imperative that fits perfectly with the skills taught at Télécom Saint-Étienne. " Some of our students specialize in data processing," explains Hubert Konik. " As a result, they are accustomed to thinking in terms of the user experience and prioritizing the ergonomic aspect of an application, which is not always the case.

But isn't it counter-intuitive to use a new digital solution to help the environment? " Our aim is to encourage people to get out and discover nature in the field, which means getting them away from their smartphones for a while," admits Béatrice Jankowiak. " Consequently, we asked Télécom Saint-Étienne to develop a lightweight application, without video and with compressed images, and available offline. It was to be a minimal support for exploring biodiversity. " It also had to not record user data, out of respect for their privacy and the environment.

These criteria thus represented as many constraints imposed on the students involved in the project. " The development of 'Scrute la nature' didn't really come up against any technological hurdles," agrees Hubert Konik. " Nevertheless, it did represent a challenge in the sense that we had to meet requirements for responsible digital and offline operation. " The latter involved embedding the data required for the routes, without making the application too cumbersome.

Towards AI integration in "Nature Scout"?

Today, "Scrute la nature" is available in six Loire communes, soon to be joined by four more, thanks to the support of Saint-Étienne Métropole. But this is just the beginning: other towns in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region have expressed interest in the solution, as have those in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. And the LPO intends to continue its roll-out, relaying the initiative to all its regional branches. A nationwide roll-out that could be accompanied by new functionalities, starting with the integration of sounds, to teach users to recognize animal calls or bird songs.

Could AI also play a role in the application? " This was not part of our initial ambition, given that some applications already offer automatic AI recognition of animals or plants," notes Béatrice Jankowiak. " However, we did come up with a mechanism for automatic validation of the game's milestones. The user would take a photo of a landscape, and the application would analyze it to verify that he or she was indeed at the indicated location. "

AI could play a part in this, representing a new challenge for Télécom Saint-Étienne. " The major challenge here lies in the possibility of embedding AI within the application, while maintaining a lightweight system," observes Hubert Konik. " One solution might therefore be to use a minimalist version of a previously trained model. In fact, the design of frugal AI models is one of our current research themes among the challenges of digital technology. " And with good reason: beyond being able to provide services directly from a smartphone, such an approach is perfectly in line with the responsible digital approach so dear to the school.