Aligarh: A team of two students from Aligarh Muslim University, comprising team leader Mohd Mazin Jameel from the Department of Electronics Engineering and another member, Nabeel Ali from the Department of Computer Science, won the First Prize in a prestigious national level competition “Technomania: Ideation 2023” hosted by Sharda University on November 4 at Greater Noida.

A total of 120 teams representing different colleges and Universities participated in this event AMU team clinched the coveted first prize, comprising of a certificate, a commendable memento, and a cash prize of Rs.20,000/-.

The main idea of the winning project, titled “Reinforcement-Enhanced Aerial Fire Control via Satellites and UAVs,” was to address the mounting challenge of uncontrolled forest fires through a two-pronged phase. In the first phase of the project, a machine learning-based Convolutional Neural Network architecture capable of predicting the presence of a forest fire using satellite imagery was developed. In the second phase, a deep reinforcement learning model for drones to swiftly contain the rapid propagation of the fire was devised.

The panel of judges commended this project with appreciation for its intriguing concept, emphasizing that it offers a valuable solution to fire suppression through UAVs, as they acknowledged that while drones may not extinguish the fire, they are effective in its suppression.