Project Topics
Here are some ideas to get you thinking about projects related to Wildland Fire problems. This list is by no means exhaustive; these ideas are examples of problems identified by some of our faculty and industry mentors. Teams are encouraged to either pursue one of these sample problems or one related to their own interests and ideas.
Also, if you missed the Winter Quarter Seminar series on Wildfires, you might want to hear some ideas shared by our great speakers.
Tree Assessment Tool
Create a tool to automate the tree assessment process used by PG&E to reduce wildfire risk.
Wildfire Carbon Quantification
Use Planet data to improve carbon quantification metrics
Worldwide high fire threat district (HFTD) Map
Develop a tool that creates a high fire threat district map for the world.
Improving forestry services and defensible space
Supporting fire prevention efforts for forestry services and defensible space programs at CAL FIRE
Community Resilience
focus on ways to improve communication with vulnerable and traditionally under-represented populations
Wildfire Machine Learning / AI Capabilities
using satellite- and sensor-based wildfire data to improve impact tracking
Minimizing Ignitions
Can utilities operate the grid differently than PSPS?
Risk-based maintenance strategy
What does a risk based vegetation maintenance strategy look like that balance’s lifecycle costs, performance and risks on outages and ignitions?
Infrastructure Inspection
Can AI be used to provide timely and accurate infrastructure inspections?
Evacuation routes
CALFIRE needs help developing real time evacuation tools
Early Detection Using Cameras
Improve early detection of wildfires using wildfire tracking cameras
Smallwood Utilization
Developing new technologies and uses for harvested materials
Disaster Philanthropy
Tracking WIldfire Donations
Vulnerable Populations
Can you empower vulnerable populations?
Building Air Filters
Facilitating whole home air filtering
Home Protection
What is the best investment for protecting your home at the WUI?
Multi-benefit Forest Management
Balancing goals for recreation, forestry, grazing, and mining
Improved Smallwood Harvesting
We need improved ways to process accumulated fuels, preferably without fire.
Satellite Tracking
Improve tracking of wildfires from satellite images
Cascading disasters
How can competing disasters be managed?
Public Health and Wildfires
Develop a system to track health impacts
Economic impacts
What jobs are most impacted by wildfires?
Public Opinion
What kind of public support is there for wildland fire policies?