Building AI tools to outsmart wildfires

In 1994, Joaquin Ramirez took a job with a wildland fire-fighting crew in his native Spain. That year, Spain saw some of the most destructive fires in its history, and Joaquin quickly realized he just wasn’t cut out to be a wildland firefighter.

He left the crew, but he kept thinking about the outdated maps his fellow firefighters had relied on, and wondering how better sensing and mapping technologies could make fighting wildfires safer and more effective. That curiosity led him to found Technosylva in 1998 to provide firefighters with advanced fire mapping and prediction tools. In 2007, the company expanded to the U.S.

This week on With Great Power, Joaquin tells Brad how Technosylva provides wildfire risk analysis services to utilities and fire agencies, and how incorporating AI into its wildfire risk forecasting tools can help utilities make more informed decisions in managing power infrastructure.

With Great Power is a co-production of GridX and Latitude Studios.  

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Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Erin Hardick and Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The Grid X production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.