A high school student’s consumer seismometer delivers low-cost earthquake early warning #Earthquakes #Education @physorg_com
Southern California high school junior Vivien He has built a low-cost seismometer device that delivers earthquake early warnings for homes and businesses. It costs less than $100 for her to make today and could someday be a regular household safety device similar to a smart smoke detector.
The device has detected all earthquakes over magnitude 3.0 around Los Angeles since September 2020.
When earthquakes are stronger than the alert threshold set by the user, the device can sound the onboard alarm for on-site warning, send a text message to local subscribers of the regional warning service, and can be controlled from a smartphone.
The seismometer has since successfully detected several recent earthquakes in Southern California, and He has competed in science fairs at her school district and Los Angeles County. There, she won the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) Finalist award, which moves her on to compete at the international level next. In addition, she won the Association of Women Geoscientists Award, the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women & Girls 1st Place Award and Scholarship, and the Professional Engineers in California Government’s Marylin Jorgenson-Reece Award of Excellence and Scholarship.
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