A TRIO of teenagers have created a quacking new way to detect pollution in the world’s open waters.

In just four days, Monmouth school pupils Ben Hope, Harri Bell-Thomas, both 18, and Benedict Allen, 17, brought Watt the Duck to life in preparation for a national coding competition.

Under their team name, Buoy, they combined Raspberry Pi computers, sensors and a duck to revolutionize how data from oceans, rivers and lakes is collected.

More than 1,200 children from 66 centres across the UK flocked to Birmingham’s ICC for Young Rewired State’s Festival of Code, at the weekend.

After grueling presentations to industry experts, judges crowned them as winners of the Code a Better Country category.

“It was an amazing festival and we were so happy to win,” said Mr Hope.

The team’s small, autonomous, Raspberry Pi-powered duck boat records and posts data about its environment, including temperature, humidity and UV readings, with live PiCam feed from the boat, to a web and mobile app client.

It represents these readings in charts, graphs and maps – potentially saving huge amounts of time, money and man power.

The trio now hope to secure funding and build a more robust prototype.