Open Your EcoEye

eco eye open your

Four high school students create a recycling app

By Sarah Rollins | Photo by Cornell Watson

eeing recyclable items end up in trash cans is frustrating to many, but rather than ignore the problem, four students were inspired to create an app that makes recycling easier.

East Chapel Hill High School sophomore Bo Chi and Chapel Hill High School sophomore Yichen Sun and juniors Ayden Xu and Savannah Xu are frequent volunteers for Chapel Hill nonprofit WE SENSE, which derives its name from its mission to “serve, engage, nurture, share and enrich” the community. WE SENSE often puts on creative and educational programs and service events, such as 2019’s Bloom Fest in downtown Chapel Hill, that promote environmental awareness. “WE SENSE provided us a platform to develop our own service learning interests and projects,” Bo says. Bo, Yichen, Ayden and Savannah then leveraged their knowledge and relationship with the nonprofit to create something on their own.

In 2019, the group started their first project, “Go Green – Holiday Action,” which focused on spreading awareness of the increased waste generated during the holidays from things like gift packaging and more gatherings. “Our main inspiration was that we noticed people around us oftentimes misplaced [recyclable] items, so we wanted to fix that,” the team says. They hosted three holiday-themed events where they quizzed their 700 attendees’ knowledge on recycling, demonstrated DIY crafts using recycled materials and showcased their new app, EcoEye, which uses AI vision technology to classify various waste and its recyclability. “If you don’t know whether

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Ayden Xu, Savannah Xu, Yichen Sun and Bo Chi.

Our main something can be recycled or not, you can simply take a picture with EcoEye, and it will identify it for you,” inspiration was that we noticed people around us and Smith Middle School math teacher Dr. Boyd Blackburn and science teacher Regina Baratta. Savannah explains. oftentimes The free app is not yet available to the public, as twins Their hard work paid off when they received a President’s Environmental Youth Award for their misplaced [recyclable] items. Ayden and Savannah are still polishing it. “We are still working to make EcoEye more accurate and plan to add Go Green project in April. “We are very honored new game features like a leaderboard to see who has and humbled to have received the PEYA award,” the recycled the most,” they say. “This not only makes the foursome agrees. “To us, it is a symbol of the continued perseverance of app more fun but also provides an incentive for recycling.” our teamwork. This couldn’t have received the same results without the While COVID-19 put the team’s in-person events on hold, they guidance of each and every volunteer who contributed their precious continue creating virtual projects that promote environmental awareness. time as well as the support of our teachers.” The students credit the In addition to the anticipated release of their app, the high schoolers are encouragement and instruction of past and present educators such as developing new mobile apps and helpful YouTube videos, all revolving Chapel Hill High career and technical education teacher Garrison Reid, around sustainability, on Yichen’s Tigersteve Tech channel. CHM