Ecosense wins Rep. Lori Trahan’s 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’ Third District

When asked what inspired the creation of Ecosense, the students said, “As we were attending our history class a few weeks prior, we were discussing the social reform movements and Enlightenment of the mid to late 1800s in New England. In this discussion of the topic, social reforms in unsanitary living conditions during that time period came up. This sparked the idea for this project, specifically quality of water and our environment. During the 19th century water quality was so bad that many people fell to diseases such as typhoid fever and cholera, enhanced by pollution as a result of the Industrial Revolution occurring around this time period. As time went on and water quality went up, many new cities were able to spring up and health codes were put into place to regulate water quality. While this may be the case, water quality may vary from state to state, making tap water acceptable in one state unacceptable in another. 

For example, a bad experience I had with the water quality was when I was at school. As I was walking to my next class after finishing gym class, I decided I would take a quick sip at one of the water fountains. As I was drinking it, I realized that the water was faintly brown and tasted a little off putting. Not thinking much about it, I went on about my day. As the school day drew closer to ending, I could feel my throat feeling a bit itchy. I woke up the next morning with a terrible pain in my throat. After coming back from taking a quick trip to the doctor’s office, they informed me that I had strep throat. If I had more information about the water quality in the area, I would have known not to drink from the fountain. This is what our app is aiming to do:  track and inform the user of important information in their environment. The impact this app has potential to do is vast, from helping local universities with their research, providing information on organism habitats, and  environmental water quality statistics to helping the everyday person learn about the changes happening to the earth, allowing them to make an informed decision on what they consume.”