Obsidian Solutions Group Joins Groundbreaking Initiative to Support NASA and the Firefighting Community With Wildfire Modeling and Analytics, Management, and Decision Making
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FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Obsidian Solutions Group is proud to announce its support to the Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) and its groundbreaking research and development initiative—the Applied Sciences Center for Resilience Studies (ASC). The ASC creates a nexus between researchers and practitioners, enabling and advancing collaboration among government agencies, industries, and academia to enhance community wildfire resilience. ASC's inaugural research endeavor, which is funded by NASA's Earth Applied Sciences Wildland Fires program area, will focus on wildfire decision-making and data mapping. Known as the Wildfire Decision and Data Mapping Project, this effort will study the intersection of wildfire management, human decisions, and planned interventions to advance wildfire science and technology, improve emergency management techniques and procedures, and support data-informed decision making for fire-related emergency services, future technologies, and resourcing. Dr. Katelynn Kapalo—ASC's assistant director—and Brian Collins—the research project's co-investigator—will lead this effort for the WFCA. According to Kapalo and Collins, the goal of this foundational study is to create a science-based decision model, enabling NASA and the wildfire community to align and prioritize investments in sensors and systems, data and data analytics, operational planning, resourcing, and mitigation.
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'Our team is not only excited for but also honored to support and participate in such a worthwhile endeavor for the U.S. firefighting community who daily protect us and the environment from fires and other natural and manmade emergencies.'
Capitalizing on its proven ability to provide solutions to its customers' most challenging problems, Obsidian Solutions Group will leverage its core competencies in data management, intelligence, threat modeling, and doctrine and training assessments to support WFCA's groundbreaking initiative. Overseeing this effort for Obsidian are Chris Teague and Ken Kassner, who have managed, led, and supported various exercise design, training, and decision-making programs and doctrine analysis for Obsidian's clients. Together, they initiated the company's support to this pioneering work with NASA and the Western Fire Chiefs Association. Obsidian has also partnered with Matt Maher and Rob Orlando of Processus Group, who will utilize their company's data modeling techniques and cognitive problem-solving methodologies to assess cause and effect relationships across the complex wildfire fighting domain.
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Jim Wiley, president and co-founder of Obsidian Solutions Group, expressed great enthusiasm for this project. 'Our team is not only excited for but also honored to support and participate in such a worthwhile endeavor for the U.S. firefighting community who daily protect us and the environment from fires and other natural and manmade emergencies.'
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Pat O'Neil—Obsidian's vice president of operations—further commented about the incredible value of this research initiative. 'Similar to the mission-critical work many of our experts regularly provide to our nation's warfighters in operational design, planning, and decision making, this collaborative effort between the WFCA, Obsidian, and Processus directly applies to firefighters on the ground at the point of relevance and the myriad organizations involved in wildland fire management and resourcing. We're exceptionally proud to be a part of this project.'
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