About this project

Wildfires can have a devastating impact on humans and nature-- they cause more than 33,000 deaths and destroy over 10.1 million acres annually. Smoke drifting from wildfires can cause respiratory problems and causes the Ozone layer to weaken, and 8% of carbon emissions come from these fires. We can replace traditional, less effective methods of prevention by using advanced technology such as AI.

Siddhartha trained his AI with hundreds of images of forests with and without smoke. The AI resulted in a 90% accuracy of detecting whether or not there was smoke present in the image, even in images where it is not clear (for example, the presence of heavy clouds). Siddhartha hopes to create an app to make it accessible, and have the ability to notify fire departments if fires are detected.

Siddhartha's project can help communities be alert when there poses a risk of a wildfire, and quickly mitigate the damage before it spreads-- minimizing the harm done on individuals, infrastructure and the environment.