Capstone Projects

Wildfire Smoke Impact Assessment as a Service for Solar Energy Development

Program: Data Science Master's
Host Company: Sanguine Seal
Location: Wyoming (onsite)
Student: Austin Schafer

For my capstone project I set out to design a wildfire smoke analysis and projection platform aimed at helping solar development. The solar industry has experienced significant growth and both private and public sectors are investing to make solar one of the largest energy sources in the US. Unfortunately, with current emission levels, wildfires are projected to increase along with wildfire smoke. This smoke severely impacts solar panel efficiency, which may disrupt the lofty growth goals that the industry has set. My company, Sanguine Seal, specializes in long-term wildfire smoke projection to provide solar developers confidence that their solar projects will not only enjoy high efficiency in the present, but also long into the future. By utilizing machine learning techniques on historical air quality datasets, Sanguine Seal provides prescriptive and predictive analysis services that are cutting-edge to the environmental technology industry.