After the unfortunate and constant shootings in schools throughout the country, four students from schools in South Bahia created a device to prevent shootings called SIREN, which detects shots in the study center, sending a quick alert so that authorities respond more quickly in an emergency.
Much like a smoke detector, SIREN is a 3-by-6-inch device that sits on the ceiling, so for many it may be unnoticeable. When gunshots are detected, a text message is sent to students and staff with the location, depending on which sensor is activated on campus.
"Our goal was really to make it so that it wouldn't be noticeable and it wouldn't interfere with the normal school day. Smoke detectors are everywhere, but no one really notices them, and they don't interfere with anything," Swarnya Srivastava of Monta Vista High School in Cupertino told KTVU FOX 2.
Rebecca, Audrey, Swarnya and Caitlin, the young students who created SIREN, saw the need to create this device after it took the police about 4 hours to arrive at Uvalde Elementary School in Texas last year where 21 people lost their lives.
"We've all experienced school shooting scares in our high schools. So it was a no-brainer to address an issue like this," said Caitlin Ngyuen of Santa Clara High School.
Though they are from different schools in the Bay Area, the four students met at local tech competitions where they began to envision the project.
“This outer casing is 3D printed. It has a microphone here that captures the surrounding audio to determine if there was a gunshot or not. The data from the microphone goes inside our motherboard here, where it processes the data to determine if there has been a gunshot,” Nguyen told the outlet.
According to the K-12 Shooting Database, there have been 123 school shootings in 2023 alone, with 135 victims.
The student team said they spent about $90 on creating the prototype, but said they are seeking funding to help complete their gunshot detection prototype, as well as support from machine learning mentors who can help them refine the device.
“There were teachers, mentors, judges, and so many people. They were really supportive of our solution and really want SIREN to become a real thing,” Audrey Wang, from Mission San Jose High School, explained in an interview with the outlet.
With information from KTVU FOX 2.
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