Wednesday, June 24: Official presentation at Bagni Gabriella in Sanremo
A technological innovation born in the classroom is set to change the summer in western Liguria. Students in the Robotics track of the science program at the Gian Domenico Cassini State High School in Sanremo (Imperia)—a school led by Principal Sara Ferrero,—have designed and built the Medu-Camera, an advanced device that uses artificial intelligence to monitor and count jellyfish in the sea. The prototype competed in the MareBot contest during the RomeCup 2026.
The Launch and the Project
The project will be presented and officially launched next Wednesday, June 24, at 5 p.m. at Bagni Gabriella (Corso Marconi 97, Sanremo). Following the official remarks, the student team will demonstrate the Medu-Camera’s operation live. The idea stemmed from a desire to solve a real-world problem in the local area: “Since we’re from Sanremo and live near the sea, we decided to create a project that would affect us directly and help solve one of our problems”, the students explained. Jellyfish “blooms” are, in fact, on the rise due to warming waters and intensive fishing.
How the “Medu-Camera” Works
The heart of the system is an underwater camera enclosed in a watertight tube, anchored to a concrete base at a depth of about 4–5 meters.
- Detection. The camera takes a photo every minute, monitoring a volume of water of about 123 cubic meters.
- Recognition. The images are sent to a computer on the beach, which uses Gemini’s Gemma 3 AI to analyze the photos, identify the jellyfish, and count them.
- Alert. The number of jellyfish appears instantly on a digital display on the beach, the “medusometer”.
The system uses a traffic-light system to guide swimmers: green (fewer than 60 jellyfish), orange (between 60 and 170), and red (more than 170). “By looking at the data that appears in real time on the medusometer, you can decide whether or not to go for a swim,” explain the inventors.
Safety, Inclusion, and Sustainability
In addition to safety, the project stands out for its ecological footprint: it is “powered entirely by solar panels, making it eco-friendly and reducing its environmental impact”, emphasizes student Elisabetta Salluzzo. Furthermore, to ensure the inclusion of visually impaired swimmers, the display incorporates a text-to-speech synthesizer that communicates the water conditions via voice commands.
The Team Behind the Project
The project is the result of interdisciplinary work by the students, coordinated by professors Federica Briata, Federica Siccardi, and Angela Tribuzio. The students behind this achievement are: Veronica Actis, Sofia Alecse, Nicole Borro, Andrea Borro, Nicolò Barone, Matteo Cannarozzo, Arianna Decuseara, Serena Mandaglio, Jordan Odasso, Elisabetta Salluzzo, Mattia Tacchi, and Vladyslava Terranova.
On the technical side, the collaboration with students from PoliTOcean at the Polytechnic University of Turin (Andrea Ballarati, Lucrezia Caviasso, Davide Colabella, and Carlo Secli) was crucial; they supported the high school in its decisions regarding waterproofing and components.
The Medu-camera, which has already garnered national attention at the RomeCup 2026 and the Maker Faire Rome, now aims to become an essential tool for protecting swimmers and monitoring the Ligurian marine ecosystem.
