Grapevine

Up in smoke: DIY tech to combat wildfires

As wildfires become a more frequent and dangerous part of life, especially in the Pacific Northwest, finding solutions that everyone can use is more important than ever. By June 2024, the Pacific Northwest had already seen more trees burn than in all of 2023.

At Portland State University's Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, two engineers, Joshua Mendez and Elliott Gall, are working on a wildfire research project that could change how we respond to wildfires. Their approaches rely partially on open-source and low-cost technologies, which means they are available for anyone to use, adapt, and improve.

Wildfires don't just affect the areas where they burn. "By injecting this ash into the atmosphere," Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Mendez explained, "you're also affecting this global system as well."

Having been awarded multiple grants, Mendez and his graduate student Arie Jorritsma developed low-cost sensors that can be launched into wildfire smoke clouds using simple balloons. These sensors collect real-time data about the conditions inside the fire, improving weather models and firefighting strategies.

This technology isn't just for scientists with big budgets. "The idea with this balloon launch is [to] develop a system that is really cheap that we can deploy in mass," Mendez said. Instead of relying on expensive equipment, they use mylar party balloons with lightweight sensors attached. This kind of technology could be accessible even to communities with fewer resources.