EU|BIC TagusValley promotes and supports entrepreneurship, competitiveness and synergies with and technology transfer in the Médio Tejo region in Portugal. One of the 64 companies guided by TagusValley, Bee2Fire, explains how.

Bee2Fire’s mission is to limit losses caused by fires, one of Southern Europe’s main concern. They enable rapid response and support in firefighting operation efforts by providing early fire detection and decision support systems by scanning the landscape for smoke columns above the horizon using Deep Artificial & Neural Networks and innovative multi-sensor technology. Today, as one of the 64 companies supported by EU|BIC TAGUSVALLEY – a science and technology park covering over 8 hectares, located in Abrantes, operating since 2003 – it contributes to the promotion of entrepreneurship, competitiveness, synergies with and technology transfer in the Médio Tejo region.

As a member, Bee2Fire has received support in regional networking with the public sector and identification of internationalisation support programmes. Bee2Fire grew rapidly, now operating in Brazil to help keep a mining company working and to protect trees for a pulp and paper producer. Perhaps most significantly, they opened an office and the system has been put to work in California (US), which had its deadliest yearly wildfires in 2018.

Along with analysing the on-site data, the device’s artificial intelligence now weighs similar events captured by the system over time. To provide its crucial insights Bee2Fire successfully leverages the working power of IBM’s Watson supercomputer to visually evaluate what it sees and forecasts from weather company data to predict how fires might spread.

 

 

“Being in the centre of the country and close to everything has been an advantage. We have in the park a wide range of services and management that provides support to companies and favours the formation of knowledge and business networks.’’

Continue reading in the 2020 EU|BIC Impact and Activity Report

Photo credits: Bee2Fire and TagusValley