From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
BIRMINGHAM — A team of three Jefferson County students won the 2019 Congressional App Challenge in Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District.
The team from Jefferson County International Baccalaureate School developed an application titled “Famine Risk Index (FRI) Early Detection System.”
Katsuki Chan, Viraj Kacker and Aniket Pant made up the winning team.
The FRI Early Detection System app is designed to map the relationship between drought and the risk of famine in a given area. The system considers factors such as population density, vegetation data, rainfall and more. Chan, Kacker and Pant particularly sought to bring attention to famine and malnutrition risks in sub-Saharan Africa.
Kacker said the team project will likely influence his future.
The team name was ForensX, and Pant said the team was founded as a result of the team members’ love for computer science and data. He said the team was able to study populations of any size.
“To accomplish this, we retrieved over 20 gigabytes of high-resolution satellite imagery over the African region,” said Pant. “Next, we developed our own model to predict an index representing the danger a respective population possesses to famine.”
Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) said he was impressed by the team’s ability to develop skills in computer coding, math, science and related subjects.
“I’m very impressed with Katsuki, Viraj, and Aniket’s work for the App Challenge,” Palmer said. “They are incredibly talented and have created something valuable for humanitarian aid research that also shows ingenuity and user-friendliness. STEM skills are becoming more important every day and I’m confident these young men will go far. They should be proud of their hard work.”
Chan said while researching data, they found only one pre-existing model that studied famine. The team identified limitations for that model and modified their data using satellite imagery.
“During our time together, we’ve engineered novel methods for identifying those at risk from famine via satellite imagery, created means for detecting water-well failures in Tanzania, Africa and evaluated machine-learning systems for the identification of underfunded schools in NYC,” said Chan. “We hope to use computer science to make a difference in our community, for the better.”
Application submissions were judged by Mr. Steven Puckett of the University of North Alabama, Dr. Kathryn Lanier of Southern Research, and Mr. Kris Bishop of Integrated Legacy Solutions. The winning students will receive recognition certificates from Congressman Palmer and will have the chance to present their app at a coding fair in Washington, D.C. in the spring.
The results of the model can be seen here: https://bit.ly/2PdDk06.