Can old cell phones and machine learning help stop deforestation? The Tembé tribe from the central Amazon hopes so. In collaboration with Google and Rainforest Connection, a global environmental nonprofit, the Tembé are using old cell phones hidden in trees and TensorFlow, Google’s open-source machine learning tool, to listen for sounds of illegal logging.

From March 21st through to Earth Day 2018 on April 22nd, hundreds of students from Los Angeles STEM science programs will participate in one of the largest student-driven programs ever launched to protect the world’s rainforests.

The “Planet Guardians” program will involve some of LA’s leading STEM middle schools building “Guardian” devices. These devices, constructed by students from old, upcycled Android smartphones, are transformed into solar-powered listening tools through Google’s open source machine learning framework, TensorFlow.

They will then be installed high in trees of the world’s most fragile rainforests, capturing any sounds of illegal logging and alerting forest rangers in real time. Guardians built in March 2018 by LA students will be installed in April in Peru, Brazil and Indonesia and are expected to protect nearly 100,000 acres through the year 2020.

RFCx’s Planet Guardians program involves students in the real work of protecting the rainforest while integrating STEM education, with workshops for students in Los Angeles this week. During the workshops, students will watch a new film by Google, “Beneath the Canopy,” about White’s work with the Tembé indigenous tribe in Brazil, warding off illegal loggers that devastate tribal lands.

Following the film, students participate in live Google Hangouts with Tembé tribal rangers, before building Guardian devices that will be sent to the Tembé to help protect their lands.

Once these Guardian devices are installed in the Tembé lands, LA students who built the devices, will receive real-time text alerts about illegal logging activity detected by the guardians.

RFCx believes that building Guardians will become a STEM science learning activity for schools across the United States. Beyond seeing nearly immediate environmental impacts from their work, this program provides students with hands-on experience in electronics, solar power, Android software development, and a primer in developing artificial-intelligence-driven neural networks built on Google’s TensorFlow.

Most importantly, this program bridges the gap between LA students, upcycled electronic tinkering, software-driven data analysis, backyard ecology and the dramatic struggles underway on the other side of the planet to protect Earth’s wildest places.

“Our devices are currently some of our planet’s most fragile rainforests. We believe having students involved in building ‘Guardians’ is an incredible STEM learning activity, and also nurtures an interest in protecting our environment at a very young age,” White commented.