At Valley Christian High School in San Jose, a team of students known as Wildfire Quest is racing against time. They’ve advanced to the semifinals of the prestigious XPRIZE Wildfire competition and have just days left to demonstrate their autonomous wildfire suppression system in a live-fire test before a panel of judges.
The team, part of VCHS’ Applied Math, Science, and Engineering Institute, is made up of twenty students, some of whom have been working on the project for the past four years. Their concept, a modular system of towers, drones, and base stations capable of detecting and extinguishing wildfires autonomously, was developed from scratch.
“Initially, we didn’t have any guidelines,” said Vishnu Parthasarathy. “We didn’t know what the requirements would be, what the constraints would be. So, we just spent the first year doing a whole bunch of research into potential suppression systems.”
The team partnered with Kaizen Aerospace and Sensory AI to help bring their vision to life. Their system uses visible light and infrared cameras mounted on towers to detect fire. Once a fire is located, drones are dispatched to drop fire retardant and then return to base stations to reload.
“Wildfires are just everywhere in California,” said Olivia Ahn. “I grew up with wildfires, and it’s exciting to be able to work toward a solution.”
During their live demonstration, the system performed as designed despite some early glitches. The judges did not issue a final decision, but they were reportedly “very impressed” with the team’s work.
Regardless of the outcome, the students say they’re proud of what they’ve accomplished. “The bottom line of our team is: do what you can, do what works, and try your hardest to make that happen,” Jacob Moses said. “And I think we did that today.
The team will find out in December if they have advanced to the final round.