College Park High School and Academy of Science and Technology senior, Asong Suh Jr. won the Rep. Morgan Luttrell’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge. Suh won with his app SafetAI, which helps prevent gun violence in schools.
“It [SafetAI] is able to do this by increasing CCTV quality, identifying gunshots in CCTV/Surveillance audio, identifying firearms in CCTV video footage, and live tracking active shooters in CCTV video footage,” said Suh.
With this technology the app is able to identify and prevent active shootings in areas where weapon carry is illegal.
To identify firearms, SafetAI uses “an audio classification model trained on 13,973 audio files of gunshots, an object identification and tracking model trained on 16,332 images of different firearms, and an image resolution enhancement model using a Enhanced Super Resolution Generative Adversarial Network,” said Suh.
It is believed that SafetAI will decrease the amount of time it takes to alert police of active shootings from 5 minutes to under 10 seconds with more than 95 percent accuracy.
“I’m excited for the impact that my application could have. I think everyone knows the toll the numerous school shootings (2,064 in the US since 1970) have taken on America and the world, so to have developed an app that could truly help stop these occurrences makes me happy,” Suh said.
Suh added that he was influenced and supported by many people including his parents, his uncle Ireti and auntie Simone, and Mr. Ewbank, who provided feedback on his app throughout its development.
Suh’s interest in technology began with a love of coding, causing him to fall in love with machine learning and programming. “My Dad, who immigrated here from Bambui, Cameroon (where technology is scarce), immediately understood the value of technology and software when he came to the US, and had me start coding from a young age, teaching me about the impact it could have, especially back home,” Suh said.
As the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Texas’ eighth district, Suh will travel to Capitol Hill this month and participate in an event called HouseOfCode, which is run by congress. At the event he will be able to demonstrate SafetAI for Congress members and the general public, hear from lawmakers, and network with other winners and companies that partner with the challenge. Additionally, his picture and name will be hung in Capitol hill and featured on house.gov.
“I want to continue working on this app, and the Congressional App Challenge has given me the opportunity to do so by getting me in contact with Congressman Morgan Luttrell and his office. Beyond SafetAI, my dream is to lead Google’s Africa AI Lab in Ghana, so I am hoping to major in Computer Science and do further Computer Vision / Machine Learning research when I head to college this year,” said Suh regarding his future.
