It’s crazy when you think about it but it’s reported that around 3.5 billion to 7 billion trees are cut down per year in the rainforest. it’s become more and more important to do something about it and thanks to more than 100 students that’s just what is about to happen.
On Sunday April 22nd, the largest student program initiative to protect the world’s rainforests in Brazil will happen as special devices will be turned on that will not only monitor sounds in Brazil’s rainforest but also let users listen to the sounds of a rainforest in real time.
Here is a bit more information on the special Earth Day event happening:
Over 100 students from Los Angeles STEM Science Programs along with NGO Rainforest Connection (www.rfcx.org) and its Founder Topher White will gather on EARTH DAY for the RFCx Planet Guardians Event to officially “switch on” the first of the student’s own personalized built devices as a part of the largest student program initiative to protect the world’s rainforests in Brazil. Event will take place on Sunday, April 22, at LA Zoo’s Witherbee Auditorium, 5333 Zoo Drive, Los Angeles from 12 NOON – 3PM.
The Earth Day Planet Guardians Event will officially turn on these student-built Guardian devices so that their live audio streams will begin broadcasting on RFCx’s free mobile app, accessible anywhere in the world. From the stage, we will connect with via a live Google Hangout with our team in the rainforest of Brazil.
Students will download the app, and the sounds of the rainforest will stream live on everyone’s mobile app. We will set off an actual chainsaw in the forest, and the students will be able to see the chainsaw sound being detected by the Guardians they built via RFCx’s free mobile app, powerful artificial intelligence back-end technology used by RFCx’s mobile app, TenserFlow. Within a matter of moments, each student’s phone will ring in the auditorium with a text alert
notifying them that their Guardian has detected the sounds of a chainsaw, which is a sign of illegal logging. This demonstration provides a very visual moment to capture the end result of the RFCx Planet Guardians Program on Earth Day as these devices go live.Last month, hundreds of middle and high school students in Los Angeles took part in RFCx’s Planet Guardians pilot program events at select L.A. schools and built their own personalized Guardians devices, while learning about protecting our planet. Students constructed these devices from old, upcycled smartphones, and transformed into solar-powered listening tools through Google’s open source machine learning framework, TensorFlow.
These student-built devices were sent to Brazil and installed high in trees in the worlds most fragile Rainforests, where they will capture any sounds of illegal logging and alerting forest rangers in real time to protect these fragile areas for the next 10 years.
Each week additional devices will be turned on with a total 60+ devices to be activated in the next few weeks. The devices were built during workshops help on March 21 st with Topher White at the STEM Academy of Hollywood and the Girls Academic Leadership Academy, followed by Magnolia Science Academy in Reseda and Wildwood Institute for STEM Research and Development on March 22 and North Hollywood High School Zoo Magnet Center and STEM 3 Academy in North Hollywood on March 23.
You can get more information on the event and the free app at the NGO Rainforest Connection website.
You can also follow them on:
Twitter: @RainforestCx
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RainforestCx/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rainforestcx/