Student innovator builds hazard-reporting site

When severe weather hits, information can be scattered across social media posts, council pages, news alerts and neighbourhood group chats, often making it hard to know what’s happening on the ground, street by street.

This inspired Yash Kumar, a computer science and IT management student at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, to create a crowdsourced hazard-reporting website.

His idea took shape following flood and storm events in 2025, and he acted on it after the devastating January 2026 landslide at a Mount Maunganui holiday park.

“The website is a one-stop crowdsourced repository for reporting landslips, floods, storms, and weather events,” he says.

“I think a tool like this is something councils and governments could adopt.”

The test site, which is just a proof of concept at this stage and isn’t moderated, lets people log hazards in their area, from downed trees to slips, flooding and damaged roads, even potholes, with reports appearing in real time for others to view.

Yash says if his idea was developed by councils or a government agency and
properly monitored and moderated, it could help people make safer choices about where and when to travel.

He says his studies at the University, particularly the Business School course BUSAN 300 (Data Wrangling and Big Data), taught by lecturer Shohil Kishore, developed his problem-solving skills and exposed him to real-world applications of artificial intelligence. This, says Yash, changed his way of thinking, prompting him to consider how AI could be used to accelerate solutions and address challenges beyond the classroom.

Kishore says projects like Yash’s test site show what’s possible when students apply classroom learning to real community needs.

“Yash was a top student and class representative. His studies gave him the skills to create this website, which is great to see.”

With extreme weather becoming more frequent, Yash hopes his test site sparks discussion about how Aotearoa New Zealand can share risk information more quickly and how digital tools can help communities stay safe.