New Canaan college student develops app to detect ticks
New Canaan's Antonia Kolb has developed an app that identifies ticks called Detickt.
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It's tick season. One local college student has developed a way to identify them.
Antonia Kolb, from New Canaan, has developed an app that identifies ticks called Detickt. You can take a picture of the tick, and the app will tell you what kind it is, the risks, and then links it to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"She's so smart and so talented, and again, what I did was just facilitate her figuring out her next steps," said Victoria Schulman, her former teacher at the King School .
Kolb was diagnosed with two rare tickborne infections a few years ago. The King School grad said she took part in a summer research program and that's how she eventually developed the app.
"For something that just started as this passion project thing, I didn't think that it would actually have any effect on people's lives," said Kolb.
For her hard work, Kolb has also received the prestigious Princess Diana Award. She also received a royal letter from Prince William.
"What was really rewarding was, you know, being listed among these incredible people from around the world doing insane projects and just really impacting people, and so to be even named in that list was just such an incredible experience," said Kolb.
A couple of years ago, Rep. Jim Himes picked the Detickt app as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge for his district.
Kolb says the app is 90% accurate. Her app has 4,000 downloads on the app store.
