Lungitude+ wins Rep. Pete Aguilar’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 33rd District

When asked what inspired the creation of Lungitude+, the students said, “Growing up in Rancho Cucamonga, a city nestled at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, we have lived our entire lives in the most wildfire-prone region in United States. The mountains’ dry terrain and proximity to our community make wildfires particularly destructive, while the Santa Ana winds funnel smoke and carcinogenic particles directly into local neighborhoods. The 2025 Palisades wildfire marked a turning point in our journey. Witnessing its devastation, we realized that awareness alone was not enough. We needed to take action to protect our community’s health.

“What began as frustration quickly evolved into innovation. As residents of Southern California, we became increasingly aware that firefighting policies, although essential for immediate containment, often overlook the long-term respiratory health of those on the front lines. While firefighters are equipped with Self-Contained Breathing Apparatuses, or SCBAs, their protection is often limited to active fire zones, leaving them vulnerable during recovery and overhaul stages when carcinogenic particulates remain suspended in the air. We wanted to address that unseen danger and provide a system that could track these carcinogens in real time while educating both first responders and civilians about the health risks associated with chronic exposure.

“This is what ultimately inspired the creation of our app, Lungitude+, a real-time carcinogenic particulate tracking and educational platform designed to make environmental data both accessible and actionable. By integrating live air quality data with an AI-powered chatbot and inclusive learning modules, we sought to translate scientific information into tools that ordinary people, like our family and friends, could understand and use. For us, education is just as important as detection. Our goal was to design something that empowers users to protect their health while inspiring youth engagement through interactive learning, gamified modules, and personalization features that make science approachable for all learners.”