By Sagar Lekhak
Publication Date: 2026-03-05 13:47:00
At least 57 nations have live anti-personnel mines on their territory. In 2024 alone, 1,945 people were killed and 4,325 injured by mines, 90% of whom were civilians. Almost half of them were children. In the same year, 105,640 mines were removed through demining operations.
With new conflicts, the number of mines continues to increase. For farmers, children and others returning to their areas after conflict, a single step can mean permanent injury or death.
I am a Ph.D. student in the Imaging Science Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology, working with Emmett Ientilucci. My research focuses on using drone-based multi-sensor imagery and artificial intelligence to improve the speed, accuracy and reliability of landmine and unexploded ordnance detection.
Our research aims to achieve this in three ways: developing techniques to combine data from multiple sensor types, creating benchmark datasets for developing and evaluating detection systems, and improving reliability…
