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BVSD student, inspired by his family’s loss in the Marshall Fire, designs wildfire notification app recognized by Congress

Aadi Sobti
Erin Rain

En Español

Aadi Sobti is a junior at Peak to Peak High School, unfortunately, is familiar with the loss tied to the recent headlines of wildfires in California, because his family lost their home in the Marshall Fire when he was in 8th grade, attending Monarch PK-8. 

When reflecting on that experience for himself and his family Sobti shares, “I feel like all things happen for a reason, even though not entirely sure why that reason is yet.” 

The experience of losing their home is “something we still go through and talk through every day, it’s still a very big part of our lives.”

“I’ve grown from that experience, and as a community, we have grown together,” he said. “It sounds strange, but if I had to go through it all over again I would, what I took out of it I feel like is more than I lost ultimately.”

Firewatch App: Real-time emergency fire and weather updates
A new found empathy and concern for his community and the world around him is one of the many important perspectives Sobti gained, ultimately inspiring a project that would earn him recognition by Congress.

Sobti created an app called “Firewatch” that provides real-time emergency fire and weather updates. He designed the entire app himself, including the coding, and AI framework — mostly self-taught with free internet tutorials.

“I remember how much anxiety our community experienced, and continues to, following the Marshall Fire. It was hard to know what was happening, I remember we were just watching outside all the time to try to see if it was progressing.”

His hope for users of the Firewatch app is three-fold: a sense of security first and foremost, to be informed of potential fire danger around them, and the relief of one less worry on their plate when tracking wildfire danger. 

“To be informed is so important, in those events there is so much different information to sift through,” Sobti shared.

The idea for Firewatch came in response to the Congressional App Challenge, which Sobti was introduced to in a freshman year course called “Innovations” at Peak to Peak Charter School.

The challenge welcomes middle and high school students to code an app that’s judged by both a panel in their district and their U.S. representative. The goal is to encourage students to learn to code and inspire them to pursue careers in computer science.

“That’s when I first learned about the challenge, then a few years later, I made the app and submitted it for consideration.”

“I had never made an app before, I had made a website where I learned a little about coding,” he shared. “I watched video tutorials and utilized a special programming language developed by Apple for apps called Swift. All coding languages have a similar framework and idea, so if you know one it's not too hard to learn another.” 

Watch: Sobti’s video submission of the Firewatch app (English)

In creating the app, both the front and back end, Sobti found the Artificial Intelligence (AI)  model he designed was the most interesting aspect. Firewatch uses AI to scan online images and categorize the severity of the threat based on three classifications, Low; the probability of a fire happening with rain or very cold weather; High, which is sunny and maybe dry grass, and a fire in progress. If the app detects a fire, an alarm that alerts the user.

“I attended a camp where AI design was introduced to me and I’m finding that part of it is most interesting to me, more of the back-end development work, so that may be something I continue to explore as an interest in the future.”

Sobti’s plans for the future of the Firewatch app is that it will be useful in any location in the country—not just in Colorado as the model he designed should translate to other locations. 

“The design makes it accessible to anyone. I’m in the process of deploying it, submitting it to the Apple team for review, and then after that it will be available on the app store—so hopefully soon.”

Colorado state leaders spotlight Firewatch
Following Sobti’s selection by the Congressional App Challenge, state leaders took to their social media accounts to congratulate him.

Colorado Governor, Jared Polis shared: “Aadi's creativity and resilience in the face of adversity is truly admirable, and we celebrate his positive contributions to the community.” 

Congressman Joe Neguse praised Sobti for his innovative efforts in alerting communities to wildfire dangers and praised the challenge winners for drawing from real-life experiences in their solutions.

Sotbi and the other four winners from the state were also interviewed by Colorado Public Radio: From video games to wildfire updates, Colorado students designed five apps recognized by Congress 

When asked how the recognition by leadership and the media felt, Sobti said it’s the first time he’s received any acknowledgement of that level.

“Actually, I had no idea about it at first until my friend texted me the Governor’s post and said “Yo, have you seen this?”. I was like, whoa, really? It was a rush of emotions, it’s amazing.”

“I believe the app got the attention and recognition it did because this is an evident problem we all face now and are seeking solutions together,” he shared. “I’m definitely hoping that there are some changes in our world so these disasters don’t continue to happen on the same scale and frequency.”

Bright future ahead
As far as his plans for senior year and beyond, Sobti’s only real objective is to have a fun and impactful future. 

He currently serves as the captain of the speech and debate team at Peak to Peak, which he cites as really fun. He plans to start a new club at the school called AInnovation, teaching AI practices to fellow students and creating AI challenges and competitions.

“Whatever I end up doing in life, I just want to have a positive impact.”


 

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