AMPlify the Urban Forest App Development with Harvey Mudd College

Amplifying the Urban Forest seeks to leave behind more than budding trees and enhanced urban forests in communities across California. With the help of six seniors from Harvey Mudd College, Amplifying the Urban Forest will see the development of an educational app, My Tree & Me, aimed at getting youth involved and excited to learn more about their urban forests. 

As part of their senior capstone project, the Harvey Mudd seniors have been hard at work to pool their varying skills in math and computer sciences in the development of this app for AMPlifying the Urban Forest. The capstone is designed to engage students in solving real-world, technical problems and provide students with an opportunity to test out a line of work they may wish to pursue after graduation. A completed capstone project will show students their real-world impact by delivering a technical project to their project sponsor. 

With sponsorship from The Britton Fund and West Coast Arborists Inc., My Tree & Me began development at the start of the  2021-2022 academic year. The app is designed for use by children and their guardians with the goal of educating children on arboriculture, exposing them to urban forestry, and connecting them in their natural surroundings – no matter how ‘urban’ their local neighborhood may be. 

While using the app, children will be encouraged to go outside and engage with nature as they observe and interact with their neighborhood trees. The app will highlight the seasonal changes of the local trees as well as their general characteristics. Children will be able to track their local trees’ natural changes throughout the year and follow along as they grow and change. The app will include several different activities that increase in challenge level and detail as a child progresses through the app. Over time, the developers of the app hope to include more educational levels and activities with the final product resembling an urban forest map.

Join us on March 12, 2022, at AMPlifying the Urban Forests’ groundbreaking event to witness the mobile app “My Tree & Me,” in action. 

For more information about volunteer opportunities check the list of participating cities here.

Funding for this project is provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as part of the California Climate Investments Program.