A team picture at 4 am, at the end of the 12-hour semifinals test window
A team led by Andrea Giusti, Senior Lecturer in Thermofluids, has advanced to the finals of the XPRIZE Wildfires competition.
The team called SIRIUS Wildfire Alliance qualified as a top team in the Space-Based Wildfire Detection & Intelligence track. The competition aims at developing cutting-edge technology to put an end to destructive wildfires.
SIRIUS Wildfire Alliance brings together young engineers and researchers, established academics from Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge and the University of New South Wales (Australia), ambitious UK startups such us Pinepeak, and wildfire management professionals from the Italian Fire Brigade.
Semifinals testing tasked teams with accurately and precisely detecting and characterising target fires using historical fire data while minimising false positives. The competing technologies were assessed by a panel of experts in fire science, geophysics, fire management, satellite intelligence, and more.
Over the course of a twelve-hour testing window, the team led by Andrea presented their solution based on a unique combination of physics-informed modelling and detection algorithms, empowered by cutting edge AI for detecting and monitoring wildfires in real-time. The technology of the SIRIUS team provides a novel solution for the management of destructive wildfires.
The team is continuing their developments in their journey towards the finals, which will be a live testing in August in Australia.
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Nadia Barbu
Department of Mechanical Engineering
