Hangar Alpha, LLC Awarded Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Advance Wildfire Management Technology
Hangar Alpha, LLC Awarded Small Business Innovation Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to Advance Wildfire Management Technology
The grant will enable further research and development of machine learning technology to improve decision-making across wildfire management, saving lives and reducing costs
NEW YORK, NY, May 26, 2021— Hangar Alpha, LLC, supported by Hangar, today announced it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to advance wildland fire management technology. The funding will support the research and development of data-driven and machine-learning based technology to improve decision-making across wildland fire management, saving lives, reducing risks and improving efficiency.
Hangar Alpha’s wildland fire management technological solution builds upon existing research and science to provide real-time and near-real-time tools that enable agency administrators and incident commanders to be more precise in their allocation of limited resources across large or multiple, concurrent incidents, while ensuring appropriate trade-offs are made and safety margins are maintained. The novel technology would enable a new paradigm for wildland fire management for pre-planning, immediate response and post-incident, in addition to providing incident commanders with information that will improve safety for firefighters on the ground and impacted communities. The technology could also be applied to prescribed fire.
“We are thrilled to receive the support from the USDA through the SBIR program to support this important wildland fire management technology that has the potential to reduce risk to firefighters while improving efficiencies across wildfire response,” said Josh Mendelsohn, founder of Hangar Alpha. “Following a record wildfire season in 2020 and forecasts for extreme western fire activity again this year, the need for effective risk management solutions based on science and advanced technology is critical.”
The USDA SBIR program focuses on transforming scientific discovery into products and services with commercial potential and societal benefit. Unlike fundamental research, the USDA SBIR program supports small businesses in the creation of innovative, disruptive technologies and enables the application of research advancements from conception into the market.
Improved coordination and efficiency on large fire incidents based on existing wildfire science and advanced technologies has the potential to dramatically reduce suppression costs as well minimize damage to communities. Large incidents routinely cost taxpayers more than $1 million per day. In 2020, wildfires cost California more than $2.3 billion in suppression costs. As wildfire seasons have turned into what can now be considered wildfire years, these costs, and the dangers associated with them, will only grow.