With hundreds of aftershocks since the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, the need for alert notifications has skyrocketed. One popular app was developed by a high-school student, who set up his own monitoring stations on the East Coast. The app is so effective, the Central Weather Administration is now a formal partner. But he isn’t the only student developer on the case. Another app made by 18-year-old Lin Tzu-yu has over 320,000 downloads, making it the most popular of all the free apps in Taiwan.

The app being demonstrated is the popular “DPIP Earthquake Alert System” developed by Lin Jui.

Lin Jui
Fudan High School student
At this time, a TREM earthquake warning was issued giving the greatest intensity estimates for the surrounding area.

Even as Lin shows the system, the app detects an earthquake within 5 seconds and informs users of its intensity and location. There are still a few seconds until the wave arrives, after which it updates with more detailed information from the Central Weather Administration. Users can also check the distribution of recent temblors.

Lin Jui
Fudan High School student
We integrated regional quake warnings from the CWA with our own local alerts to create a kind of composite alert system. So far, we’ve been able to send out alerts as early as 3 seconds after a quake.

This small contraption is a homemade seismic instrument. They have been set up at 136 locations around Taiwan to reduce blind spots. In total, about 15 people have been involved in the design and maintenance of the system.

Lin Jui
Fudan High School student
The primary goal of developing this system is to minimize damage caused by earthquakes and to help people prepare.

Lin is a 17-year-old student at Fudan High in Taoyuan with a passion for earth science. After seeing a building tilt in a 2018 tremor, he threw himself into researching earthquake mitigation. Three universities offered him spots, but he ultimately chose National Central University. His achievements have also caught the attention of the CWA.

Voice of Wu Chien-fu
CWA Seismological Center
We have channels such as this to convey information that we provide to our partners to develop new products. We certainly encourage and are happy to see it.

Another app has also received significant attention after the April 3 quake, becoming the most-downloaded free app in the Taiwan App Store. This one was also created by a high schooler.

Lin Tzu-yu
Earthquake alert app developer
Sometimes people don’t get the national alert. For disasters as serious as this, I would rather it send false alarms than be too conservative.

Using data from the CWA, the app allows users to select their region and the lowest intensity at which they want to receive an alert. This differs from the national alert, which is only issued for quakes of magnitude 4 or higher.

Lin Tzu-yu
Earthquake alert app developer
I was so touched to see the explosion in users. I learned everything from scratch. From not even knowing how to code, I made an entire app that’s been downloaded 320,000 times. I couldn’t even dream up something like this.

Eighteen-year-old Lin hopes that after starting university, he could have the resources and skill to make the app even better.

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