Sensory AI is the brainchild of 16-year old Ryan, who is based in California. Ever since Ryan had the experience of trying to contact a family member who was near a local wildfire, he has focused his efforts on building an AI-driven solution to both detect and warn communities of natural hazards, including wildfires, landslides and oil spills.

Ryan’s Sensory AI journey began when he was traveling to a tennis tournament and saw on television a devastating fire engulfing the hills behind his house. After trying to contact his family to confirm they were safe, he began to think about why so many resources are spent traveling to other planets, when societies today still can’t resolve their issues on planet earth.

Remembering a heat detector that he made for a fifth grade school project, Ryan drew up a plan for a wildfire detection system and built his first prototype. This version soon won various national science and humanitarian awards, at which point Ryan decided to enable the solution with AI capabilities, to help predict the growth patterns of wildfires.

Today Sensory AI’s solution acts as a mini-weather station equipped with sensors that can detect natural hazards and trigger alarms immediately, alerting both emergency services and residents who are in the path of a climate event - even in remote areas lacking communication infrastructure.

So far, Ryan has received funding from local nonprofits, such as the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, and the Orange County Fire Chief, Brian Fennessey, has decided to join his startup as an advisor to turn his product into reality. With this support, Ryan’s plan over the next few months is to conduct live fire testing on the ground, followed by actual pilot deployment in the local area.

Speaking about his experience of The Earth Prize, Ryan has found it to be a motivational force to keep on working and improving his solution, even when it gets complicated to balance school, sports and the startup. His advice for future applicants? “Just apply! It’s really fun, there's really nothing to lose, and being a part of it is super interesting. Especially once you get your name called as one of those last 10 finalists, it's exciting”.