Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: UC students design sensor network that anticipates a forest fire in up to 12 minutes
A group of students from the Faculty of Engineering designed a sensor network that would allow anticipating a forest fire in up to 12 minutes , thanks to a system that measures pollution and temperature every 30 seconds .
This is the Skadi-Lens project , one of the three ideas awarded in the Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship contest promoted by Corfo’s Engineering 2030 program . The challenge of this last semester was oriented in the digital transformation with 5G.
In Chile some 116 thousand hectares of forest are affected on average per year by forest fires. According to information from Conaf collected by the students, this represents a cost of 84 billion pesos, just to combat this type of event.
Hence the idea of the students in designing the Skadi-Lens detector network . Each sensor arranged in the trees has a camera that allows possible fire sources to be confirmed live, through a computer program.
The solution developed also provides triple confirmation on the detection of the incident, which would allow an initial palliative containment action to be applied, delaying the advance of the fire . For example, by supporting a system drone that spews extinguishing chemical.
Skadi-Lens received a million pesos to promote its development, as did the other two projects awarded in the contest, an emergency program for patients according to severity (Ubimed) and a body monitoring system for social events (SAMI)
Other finalists
This semester about 100 ideas were presented in the Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship course, the edition of which sought to develop solutions around “Digital Transformation with 5G”.
Among the finalist projects, they also highlighted an alert system for asphyxia in infants (CB-Safe) and another preventive of “stock breaks” in gondolas (EZstock). Also, a bracelet with sensor and alarm for dysautonomia (DW System).
To these ideas were added an application that allows interaction with the pantry (Foodeal), a hyperconnected ambulance (ReadyMedic) and an entertainment platform (POV360 °). Also an arterial hypertension system (EsTiLo).
For the academic director of the course, Michael Leatherbee, these initiatives seek that all undergraduate students have an experience as close as possible to the complexity, uncertainty and challenge that it means to bring an innovative product or service with a scientific-technological base to the market.
The jury that evaluated the proposals was made up of the Dean of UC Engineering, Juan Carlos de la Llera, the Mobile Business Manager at Claro Chile, Ignacio Calisto, the General Manager at Innspiral, Camila Mohr, and the co-founder Impactus Ventures and u-planner, Carolina Arce .