Civic Pulse App

My name is Devansh Sanghavi, and I’m a sophomore at Los Altos High School.
Over the past several months, I built a mobile app called Civic Pulse that allows residents to quickly report local issues like potholes, broken streetlights, and graffiti using their phone.

The idea came from noticing how often small infrastructure problems in Los Altos went unreported for a long time. When I looked into existing systems, I saw there was no way to consolidate such problems and understand if other residents were bothered by them as well, so I wanted to create something simpler and more accessible for residents. 

Civic Pulse lets users:
•⁠  ⁠drop a pin on a map marking reports
•⁠  ⁠upload a photo
•⁠  ⁠submit an issue in under a minute
•⁠  ⁠view and upvote nearby reports
Residents can browse nearby reports and upvote the ones that affect them, so the most urgent issues naturally rise to the top. On a weekly basis, app will share a summary email to the city team, providing important input on top items on residents' top concerns. I will also work with the city as well as residents to see if there are additional features they would like to implement in the app.

I’ve recently launched the app and am starting to get feedback from local users. I thought this might be an interesting example of a student-led project focused on improving community engagement and civic infrastructure.