The Mod Squad at the Engineering Projects Expo

Design Team (MOD Squad): Anshumaan Reddy, Nisha Shrestha, Anup Hassan Murali, David Kabeya, Chris Mann

Sponsored by: Inovonics

Smoke detectors are outdated and do not provide enough information to emergency responders. A current smoke detector detects smoke and sets off the whole building or at least an entire floor of a building, they cannot tell first responders if there is a actual fire or if there are people in the area or even which smoke detector detected the smoke. Additionally, if there are multiple detectors activated, it would be useful for firefighters to know the originating source of the fire via the real-time information from the smoke detectors and perhaps, the severity of the situation around each fire.

FireGuard is a device that can better identify if there is actually a fire. If a fire is identified and verified, FireGuard will check for people. Using a LoRa, FireGuard applies multiple detection mechanisms to verify that there is a fire. It will then direct the emergency responders to the location of the people in need as well as the blaze to decrease response time and potentially save lives.  

The main customers for FireGuard are the building owners and managers that will be purchasing the device. They are most concerned with cost and reliability. When someone buys a fire detection system for a commercial building, they want a low cost without having to worry about the system functioning properly.  Emergency responders or the building employees interface with the device these people will likely not have any training on this specific system, making a intuitive user interface a necessity. This system lowers overall response time by giving first responders the most information possible about the situation.

Capabilities 

  • This system can detect people in a room. 
  • Can detect a fire through heat or smoke.
  • The fire detection system has a verification system with multiple different types of sensors to avoid false alarms or a failure to detect a fire. 
  • This system communicates with the LoRa protocol which is a long-range wireless communication protocol capable of going through buildings and providing locating capabilities.