Home
QR Code

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, October 1, 2018 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

photo of Noah Ryder

Noah Ryder

"Big Data and Real Time Analytics: Use of Learning Algorithms for Fire State Determination"

ABSTRACT -- Fire remains a costly event worldwide even with significant advancements in fire detection and protection systems. The total cost of fire in the U.S. has been estimated to be as high as $350 billion or 2.5% of the U.S. gross domestic product (including monetary equivalents for deaths and injuries). Fires are pervasive, yet anomalous events; the probability of a fire occurring in any given structure during its lifetime is relatively low. Yet, the unforeseeable nature of fire, and its ability for rapid growth, requires timely sensing and transfer of useful information for effective mitigation (prevention or response). The greater the delay in sensing a fire, the larger the potential loss. Therefore, in order to advance the state of fire detection and response, fire signatures, as discerned by a wide range of sensor typologies, must be better characterized and understood.

Recognition that a fire is an anomalous condition suggests that there is a potential opportunity to leverage the increasing number of sensors and real-time data that are available in many structures and, over time, to use signals from them to detect signatures that are directly related to the anomalies characteristic of fire events. Using continuous data-streams to identify such anomalies, i.e. fires, has very practical and useful applications, especially if additional information on the quality of the data or size of the event is available.

SPEAKER -- Noah Ryder is a licensed Fire Protection Engineer and holds a BS and MS in Fire Protection Engineering from University of Maryland and is currently finishing a PhD program in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. Mr. Ryder has nearly 20 years of experience in engineering consulting and applied research and is a Managing Partner at the Fire Risk Alliance. He holds a position as a Visiting Research Associate and Lecturer at the University of Maryland, Department of Fire Protection Engineering and as Associate Professor at University of Waterloo. He is actively engaged in applied research efforts within the department at UMD in addition to teaching. Mr. Ryder has been a part of numerous research efforts at both a small and large scale and has led and managed many of these efforts. Mr. Ryder serves as the Faculty Lead for the UMD Hyperloop Team. He has numerous peer-reviewed publications and has received several awards for his peer-reviewed research.

Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov