Results so far - from our Program Director

First peek at results of the Bushfire Data Quest

We are thrilled to close the formal sprint week with valuable progress from the bushfire research teams. The four teams made a superhuman effort to build algorithms that pushed boundaries - detecting fires faster from orbit, shortening the time required to make fire-risk maps, measuring the signatures of extreme fire events in smoke plumes and exposing the data-gaps necessary for creating fine-scale fuel moisture maps in near-real-time. 

Continued work over the next two weeks (the ‘off-ramp’) will build on these results and prepare the workflows for release to the community. The outcomes of the Bushfire Data Quest will be open - for human good - and we are confident they will form a superb foundation on which to build practical tools that have real impact.

First results from the Early Detection team showing the Orroral Valley fire.

The Data Quest methodology - excellent research by building together

The Data Quest is our first local event in Australia and New Zealand, and aims to do great science by connecting brilliant researchers. By drawing on a wide range of experience, skills and viewpoints, the teams naturally create better outcomes. We harness the best practices from the private, academic and non-profit sectors, and believe that agile methods can accelerate research for the benefit of all humanity.

The immediate research sprint is only a small part of why we are organising the Data Quest. We also want to build a resilient, friendly network of interdisciplinary scientists and key partners from public and private enterprise. The excellent work this year has been enabled by our Challenge Partner, the Minderoo Foundation, whose mission to lift national resilience is so well aligned with the goals of the Bushfire Data Quest. We also received superb support from the NSW Government, the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer, the ANU Institute for Space , the Australian Space Agency and DUG.com, who provided the essential computing infrastructure for all of the challenge projects. 

Bushfires are a national and global problem and the wider community also came together in support of the Data Quest teams. Special thanks go to Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology and Planet, who provided access to data especially for the research sprint. A team of undergraduate researchers from Northwest Nazarene University in the USA worked tirelessly to prepare and clean data. Leading scientists from Fireball International helped define the challenge questions and guided the teams during the intensive week of research. Researchers from UNSW and Macquarie University spent months organising behind the scenes. Truly a group effort across many communities - very well done to everybody!

A personal privilege to be involved

I feel incredibly privileged to be involved with the Data Quest and in awe of the talented community that has coalesced around the challenges. My own background is in using radio telescopes to investigate the interstellar medium of the Milky Way - remote sensing at a further distance. However, in recent years I have come to understand the fantastic potential of interdisciplinary projects, especially those involving artificial intelligence. Many of us hold key pieces of puzzles that we are unaware of. By sharing knowledge we can make rapid advances in understanding  - these are needed now more than ever.

Ad astra per algorithmos

Cormac Purcell

Program Director, Trillium Tech