SEEING THROUGH SMOKE
By Denise Scott
After a home where his family had previously lived burned to the ground during his junior year at Rock Ridge High School, Aarnav Trivedi started reflecting.
“It definitely opened my eyes a bit to the possibility of things that could actually happen to you,” said the 17-year-old senior. “It definitely made me consider more about my environment and think more about trying to look more deeply into my community and helping out other people.”
That awakening compelled Aarnav, who now lives in Loudoun Valley II, to brainstorm ideas related to fires and firefighter safety, eventually leading to his developing a prototype helmet attachment he called Aegis.
The invention’s goal is to eliminate the need for a hand-held thermal camera for seeing through dense smoke, and to boost usefulness with new AI capabilities.
After deciding on the basic idea late last year, Aarnav recruited his classmate and friend, Abhinav Jammula, 16, who lives in Loudoun Valley Estates, to help work on it during their spare time. Aarnav focused on hardware while Abhinav focused on software.
“The idea itself – I felt like it had real initiative and could change the world actually,” Abhinav said. “So, I was definitely interested from the start. I’ve had interest in firefighters since I was little and helping them out was definitely a passion for me.”
Not only does Aegis use thermal cameras, but its AI technologies give the firefighter multiple views of their environment. The “edge detection mode” shows the edges of objects in the environment. The “object detection mode” identifies everything from a couch to a person.
“We’re also adding connectivity with the incident commander, so they can see what the firefighter is seeing in real time, what is their location, and a bunch of other features that add more support,” Aarnav said.
The duo spent over $1,000 of their own money on various electronic parts to build the prototype.
“Money was never the issue for us,” Abhinav said. “If you have a passion for a project, you never care about the money you’re putting in.”
They completed the first version of Aegis in early March and continued improving it with two friends from Texas for submission to the international Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition earlier this year.
Among the thousands of teams, the Ashburn duo placed third in North America and in the top 10 overall. “It was definitely like shocking, but I was glad,” Aarnav said.
The next step? Getting approval from Loudoun County Fire & Rescue to test Aegis in the department’s burn building. “So, then we can test it in real environments and make it something that they can actually use,” Aarnav said. “Like adding fireproof material to help make it stable.”
He said Loudoun County fire officials have been supportive, such as letting them borrow an extra training helmet and other materials for the project, as well as providing advice.
“We got some more feedback in person. They’re helping us make sure we know what we’re doing when we’re building this.”
Abhinav said their top 10 ranking at Blue Ocean gives Aegis the credibility needed for a future business model. While the end goal has evolved into bringing Aegis to market, Aarnav said they are thinking strategically.
“The first step is making it usable in our local department and other departments in the DMV region,” Aarnav said. “And then from there, we’ll have enough momentum to be able to talk to venture capitalists and get some additional funding to scale it nationally.”
To learn more about the Aegis project, visit the students’ website at theprojectaegis.org.