Creative Advertising Duo Win Gold at the Anthem Awards in New York
Media Design School at Strayer (MDS) students Liza Plyshevsky and Jae Kim have scored a major international win, taking out Gold in the Best Use of AI in Sustainability, Environmental and Climate Impact at this year’s Anthem Awards in New York for their project KathScan.
The pair’s idea - created as part of MDS’s Creative Advertising programme - reimagines Kathmandu’s iconic line “We’re out there. Come find us.” by turning everyday tourist photos into an unexpected conservation tool.
Says Kate Humphries, Programme Director, MDS: “Liza and Jae’s idea began with the insight that tourists often unwittingly catch more than just memories in the photos they take. And, since tourists go where conservation teams often can’t, they came up with an idea of using the thousands of photos taken daily by tourists to detect the invasive plants and toxic weeds that currently cost Aotearoa up to $5.2 billion a year.
Using AI trained on invasive plants, KathScan’s ability to scan publicly tagged photos for invasive plant species is about enabling conservation teams to act quickly, remotely, and cost-effectively. As the judges pointed out, Kathscan is a simple, low-cost digital tool that shows great promise as a scalable model beyond New Zealand."
“Like the Webby Awards, the Anthem Awards are judged by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences. But unlike the Webby’s, the Anthem’s don’t have a student category.
“Non-professionals have to apply to enter the Anthem Scholarship Awards. Jae and Liza applied for that scholarship and won it, which paid for the US$800 entry fee for KathScan to be entered into the AI & Sustainability category.
“So, we were all delighted to hear, a couple of hours ahead of our EOY show on Tuesday night, that, they had won the Gold Award in that category ahead of a number of superb professional entries’.
“For that lovely gold win, MDS owes a grateful thank you to Thom Darlow (Bad Magic), Michael Tam (Stealth) and our formative industry panel, who all reviewed the idea in its infancy. Thanks also to the students Axis judges for their feedback.
“A raucous cheer also to our MDS teaching contractor, David Gillard-Allen (now at Dentsu) and the inestimable Andy Blood for their help in directing the idea. And some hearty back slaps also to Antony Wilson & Jess Reihana (True); Tim Gavriel & Aaron Carbines (FCB), and Ashwin Gopal (TBWA), and MDS’s teaching contractor, Kola Ogundipe, for their valuable support of the idea.”
