This week’s list of top data news highlights covers April 21, 2025 to April 28, 2025 and includes articles on a new algorithm to manage beach overcrowding in Greece and supporting student mental health with AR technology.
Nota AI, an AI optimization company based in South Korea, has partnered with Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority to improve traffic safety using a real-time video analysis system. The platform scans footage from traffic cameras, identifies hazards like accidents or stalled vehicles, and alerts emergency teams with precise location data. It also compiles automated reports to support traffic management. The deployment is part of Dubai’s broader smart city agenda.
2. Accelerating Cancer Research
Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago are using the Aurora supercomputer to design cancer drugs for previously untreatable proteins. By combining AI models with atomic-level simulations of unstable protein structures, they can identify where therapeutic molecules might bind. This speeds up the search for treatments targeting cancers that have long resisted existing drugs.
John Deere, an agricultural machinery company based in Illinois, has developed an AI-powered sprayer system that mounts on a tractor and targets weeds while driving across fields at 12 to 15 mph. The system uses cameras to scan the ground and AI software to distinguish weeds from crops based on leaf shape, triggering herbicide only where needed. In field tests, it has reduced chemical use by up to 60 percent. It also collects images to improve accuracy over time, though it currently works best with certain crops and at moderate speeds.
4. Supporting Student Mental Health
Cardiff Youth Service in Wales is piloting an augmented reality therapy app to support teenagers with anxiety and school avoidance. The app uses a game-like interface where users can design a digital flower and select weather conditions, which they then view in their real-world environments using their phone’s camera. Early trials in Cardiff and Swansea found the tool increased social interaction, particularly among neurodivergent students, and helped reduce anxiety symptoms.
5. Reconnecting Liberian Heritage
The Back-to-Africa Heritage and Archaeology Project, a U.S.-based initiative working with the National Museum of Liberia to help Liberians access cultural artifacts held in American collections, is using virtual reality (VR) to bring these objects into local classrooms. Through its Traveling Treasures program, students in Monrovia use VR headsets to explore high-resolution 3D models of historical items, such as a handheld paper fan made for the 1952 presidential election, now housed at Northwestern University. The project has sparked strong student engagement and renewed interest in Liberia’s dispersed heritage.
6. Protecting Beaches in Greece
Researchers at the University of the Aegean in Greece have developed an algorithm to manage tourism across 12 protected beaches in the western Peloponnese. The tool assesses each site’s carrying capacity—including physical space, ecological sensitivity, and visitor perceptions—to determine how many people a beach can support without harming the environment. On Kalo Nero Beach, for instance, daily visitors exceed the sustainable threshold by more than three times. The system gives local authorities a data-driven approach to reduce overcrowding and protect fragile coastal ecosystems.
7. Mapping Cells in Cancerous Tumors
Nucleai, a biotechnology company based in Illinois, is using AI to improve how cancer treatments are developed and targeted. Its platform analyzes tissue samples by mapping how cells interact within tumors, a field known as spatial biology. By identifying spatial biomarkers—patterns that predict treatment response—the system helps drug developers choose better trial participants and design more effective therapies.
FAI Farms, an agriculture tech company based in Oxford, has developed an AI system called Flockwise to improve hen welfare and farm operations. The system analyzes data from sensors, including sounds hens make, to detect signs of stress, illness, or environmental issues and alert farmers. The system can also track feed, equipment, and egg quality. If expanded nationwide, it could add 1.7 billion eggs a year, raise industry income by £280 million, and lower the industry’s carbon footprint by helping hens live longer and lay more efficiently.
9. Advancing Workplace Productivity
Zoom is rolling out an agentic assistant that can schedule meetings, assign follow-ups, and even help draft documents by learning a user’s work habits over time. Instead of relying on one massive model, the system uses multiple small, specialized AI models, each optimized for tasks like scanning calendars or summarizing meetings. This approach makes the assistant faster, more efficient, and better suited to workplace routines.
10. Converting Brainwaves to Speech
Neuroscientists at UC San Francisco and Precision Neuroscience, based in New York, are developing brain implants that use AI to convert neural activity into speech. The system trains on silent speech attempts and uses deep learning to decode neural activity into audio. Precision recently received approval to keep its high-resolution implants in place for up to 30 days, enabling the creation of what could become the world’s largest database of neural speech signals and paving the way for permanent, voice-restoring devices.
