LOS ANGELES -- After the devastating LA wildfires, researchers are hoping technology can help with natural disasters in the future.
Artificial intelligence has been at the forefront of preventing, combating, and preparing for future wildfires in the state. As federal funding has become an issue for many educational institutions across the country, Cal State LA said it's facing a $12.4 million shortfall due to budget cuts this year.
But researchers at the college were given a boost when they were awarded a prestigious $1.4 million grant from NASA to help build an AI system that will aid with future wildfires. Mohammad Pourhomayoun is the director of the AI and data research lab at CSU LA, as well as a professor of computer science.
He said he's leading a team working on a project called the Earth System Digital Twin that uses AI, satellite and ground-based data. After seeing the devastation in LA in January, Pourhomayoun wanted to help the brave firefighters and first responders who get called into action.
"I can at least create a system that can help them," Pourhomayoun said. "That can support them; that can provide valuable insight to them. To make their work safer, and more effective."
Pourhomayoun said he's honored to be given the grant from NASA to work on the project. The system takes information from various sources that can help first responders prepare, plan and combat future fires.
"It can forecast wildfire progression, wildfire spread hours to days in advance, as well as the impact of wildfire on air quality," he said. "These are valuable information for our firefighters and first responders."
The Earth System Digital Twin is still a work in progress. But after the Palisades and Eaton fires resulted in 31 deaths, over 16,000 structures being destroyed and up to $131 billion in damage, according to a report by UCLA, Pourhomayoun and his team are hoping to prevent such devastation from future fires.
"It's not only for Los Angeles, or California," he said. "We will use it for the entire United States and entire North America later."
Some students are also working alongside Pourhomayoun, including Cal State LA masters of computer science student, Bohdan Hrotovytskyy.
He said the AI system can process and complete tasks that would be virtually impossible for humans to complete.
"This is definitely more of a computational method," Hrotovytskyy said. "Where there's a lot of data, and it wouldn't really be practical or make sense for humans to look at this data in the way we're trying to get machines to look at it."
With the NASA grant providing an enormous boost to the team's efforts, Pourhomayoun's hoping their AI-based system can help the community stay safe in case of another devastating wildfire.
"They have economic impact, health impacts, and environmental impacts," he said. "Developing a system that can prevent those kind of disasters in the future can be really helpful. I really enjoy working on this kind of research."