Wadham DPhil Student Wins Prize at COP28

Wadham's Maral Bayaraa (Engineering Science, 2020) is the lead student of a University of Oxford group that has won a prize at COP28, the 28th annual UN climate meeting, where governments discuss how to limit and prepare for future climate change.

'Digital Twins 4 Tailing Dams' is a satellite-based warning system that could prevent disasters in mines. The project was selected under COP28's Prototypes for Humanity initiative and won in the Data Sciences & AI-Enabled Solutions category.

The winners were selected from more than 3,000 entries submitted from 710 universities in 108 countries - also including Yale, Princeton, Cambridge and Harvard.

Maral and the other students in the project will be awarded a share of the $100,000 prize fund.

Earlier in the year, Wadham produced a video with Maral explaining her group's now award-winning research.

As Maral shares in the video, mining has always been close to her heart.

"I'm from Mongolia, which is one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, and I've seen the huge amount of good mining can do," she said.

"But I've also seen the really dark side of mining and that's why I've always wanted to be a part of this conversation - making mining more sustainable."

Originally reported by the BBC.