Swinburne University of Technology was proud to host the XPRIZE Wildfire Track A Teams Summit, bringing together scientists, engineers and startups from around the world to transform bushfire detection and management.
The three-day event, held at Swinburne's Hawthorn campus, saw 20 teams compete to innovate bushfire detection and rapid response technologies using space-based fire detection and intelligence tools.
Rapidly and accurately detecting fires across vast and remote areas, and transmitting data back to ground stations, is a major barrier in how destructive bushfires are currently fought.
The Track A teams were given one minute to accurately detect all fires across a landscape larger than entire states or countries, and 10 minutes to precisely characterise and report data with the least false positives to two ground stations.
The resulting technologies have the potential to transform fire management practices, dramatically improving fire detection and suppression and enabling safe management of all high-risk fires.
The Track A Teams summit is part of the four-year US $16 million XPRIZE Wildfire competition.
Designed by the US-based company XPRIZE, the competition draws sponsorship from philanthropic organisations like the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Australia's Minderoo Foundation, incentivising tech innovation to solve some of humanity's biggest challenges.
Spurring innovation in firefighting technology
Around the world, wildfires are increasing in intensity, frequency and destruction - but innovation to detect and manage them has not kept pace.
Professor Alan Duffy, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Flagship Initiatives at Swinburne, said the Summit reflects the university's drive to bring people and technology together to build a better world.
"The XPRIZE Wildfire Track A Teams Summit shows how innovation can solve humanity's greatest challenges - in this case, preventing destructive wildfires through groundbreaking detection technologies," Professor Duffy said.
"Australian and international teams, including Swinburne staff members, are exploring new ways to identify bushfires as early as possible - something that's urgently needed as climate change makes bushfires both more frequent and more intense."
Uniting fire chiefs, scientists, engineers and startups
The Summit opened with fire chiefs sharing insights with teams into the opportunities and challenges of modern fire management.
Among the speakers were Peter McKechnie, Deputy Commissioner Field Operations at NSW Rural Fire Service; Ken Hall, Director of Operations at ACT Rural Fire Service; Rob Webb, CEO, Australasian Fire & Emergency Service Authorities Council; and Rob Williams, custodian of FIRE LORE, an Indigenous owned and operated cultural land management organisation.
Victoria's Chief Environmental Scientist, Professor Mark Patrick Taylor, also gave a keynote at the event, while research experts joined a panel to discuss the state of Earth Observation technologies for bushfires.
Fire management experts from the US and Australia in discussion during the XPRIZE Wildfire event.
The Summit attracted 20 teams of Australian and international scientists, engineers and startups specialising in robotics, autonomous systems, earth observation, AI, sensors and satellite communications. Two Australian teams - Akula Tech and Redback Fire Team - competed against others from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Spain and the UK.
Akula Tech, an emerging Melbourne-based space startup, specialises in cutting-edge satellite technology for earth observation applications. For the Track A Summit, Akula Tech's team joined forces with researchers Professor Kai Qin and Associate Professor Andrew Ang from Swinburne's Space Technology and Industry Institute.
Swinburne's Professor Kai Qin said the XPRIZE Wildfire competition's Track A Teams Summit was an inspiring example of how scientists and startups can work together to solve complex global challenges.
"Swinburne's expertise in AI, data analytics, remote sensing and Earth Observation (EO) complemented Akula Tech's strengths in next-gen satellite systems. Together, we worked to resolve a critical mission on Earth - how to detect bushfires accurately, quickly and precisely."
"By bringing together teams from all over the world, the Track A Teams Summit at Swinburne aims to accelerate tech solutions to transform how we manage wildfires and help drive global-scale innovation."
The XPRIZE Wildfire Track A Teams Summit took place ahead of the 2024 Australian and New Zealand National Council for Fire and Emergency Services (AFAC) Conference in Sydney.
