Cesar Harada

TED Fellow and Inventor of Protei, a Technology that Cleans Oil Spills

Cesar Harada: A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills

When Cesar Harada learned of the devastating effects of the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he quit his dream job and moved to New Orleans to create a more efficient way to soak up the oil. He designed a highly maneuverable, flexible boat capable of cleaning large tracts quickly. Aside from dealing with oil spills, Harada’s Protei will also be used to measure radioactivity and plastic debris, monitor fisheries and coral reefs, provide general oceanographic data, and serve as a surface satellite link to underwater vehicles.

Harada built Protei to be unmanned (no humans exposed to toxicants), green, and cheap. It is a machine that has sensing and decision-making skills, and the ability to right itself when necessary as it sails upwind and captures oil downwind. But rather than turn a profit, he has opted to open-source the design.

Harada and his team are also working on giving these robots a home: the International Ocean Station (IOS), an open-source hardware and software mobile laboratory. He teaches Masters in Design & Environment at Goldsmiths University, London, and was a project leader at MIT. His films, installations, and lectures have been seen from America to Europe and Japan.