Microsoft lies Beneath the Surface of an innovative Irish business ApisProtect

ApisProtect, co-founded by Cork native Dr Fiona Edwards Murphy, brings the power of advanced sensors and AI (Artificial Intelligence)  to beekeepers around the world.  

ApisProtect uses cutting-edge science, engineering, and advanced business processes to bring honey bee-saving technology to every corner of the globe. This Irish company has built an innovative system involving sensors, global communications, and artificial intelligence to proactively improve beekeeping outcomes while increasing productivity and reducing beekeeping costs. Using a small sensor device installed under the roof of the hive, beekeepers will now know which hives need their attention most.

I always love seeing how Microsoft customers are using our devices in smart ways, ApisProtect is a fantastic example of this. Growing up Fiona always wanted to do something that would make a positive difference in the world. When she finished her undergraduate electrical and electronic engineering course in UCC, she wanted to focus on her love of sensor technology. She learned about the global challenge of colony collapse disorder and completed her PhD on the topic “Internet of Things applications for honey bee health”. Since then, ApisProtect has monitored over 100 million honey bees around the world across three continents. This revolutionary remote hive monitoring technology has helped commercial beekeepers in the U.S. and hobbyist beekeepers in Ireland remotely manage their honey bees.

ApisProtect is an award-winning company, founded in 2017 to design and create ground-breaking hive-management technology for the global beekeeping industry. Not only is this technology helping beekeepers to build strong colonies for honey production, it is also vital for pollination of many food crops. The production of 80% of the 264 crop species cultivated in the EU depends directly on insect pollinators, and the global annual monetary value of pollination is estimated to be €153 billion. Since 2017, it has built an innovative system involving sensors, global communications, and artificial intelligence to proactively improve beekeeping outcomes while increasing productivity and reducing beekeeping costs.

This innovative Irish business is using technology to solve a global problem of honeybee losses. ApisProtect joined the Microsoft for Startups program in 2020 which has enabled ApisProtect to scale their infrastructure, to remotely monitor honeybees globally, using Azure technology. Over 15 million data sets have been captured to date by their small in-hive remote beekeeping device.  Once this data is collected, the ApisProtect machine learning algorithms generate valuable insights  for beekeepers to reduce honey bee losses and improve colony health.

ApisProtect is revolutionizing beekeeping by working with beekeepers around the world to develop innovative technology to remotely monitor honeybees. This important data is never at risk, even if they’re on the move from the apiary to the office, with Microsoft Surface.Microsoft Surface empowers people with devices which enable focus, unleashes imagination, and fuels achievements.