The E-Team tests an indoor version of their
"intelligent" fire extinguisher training. Credit: ProPhoto 

Digital System Sparks a Better Way to Train for Emergencies

The same powerful discharge of chemicals that makes a fire extinguisher a lifesaver in an emergency also made it an expensive, messy, and even dangerous tool to learn to use. That is, until a group of students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) came to the rescue, inventing a new simulation device to train anyone to use a fire extinguisher safely and effectively.

First funded through a 2003 NCIIA E-Team grant, the Intelligent Training System relies on digital sensors to track and score the accuracy with which users direct water vapor at a controlled series of clean-burning, propane-fed flames. BullEx, Inc., the business founded by RPI E-Team members Ryan O’Donnell and Thomas Rossi, further refined the initial invention and created the HotShot, which uses an LED panel to simulate flames. Sensors that interact with the SmartExtinguisher respond precisely to a trainee's efforts to extinguish the simulated fire. The HotShot varies the digital flames based on each user action, providing the most realistic training possible without any chemicals or ignited fuel. The result—safer and more accurate training, with a 94% reduction in cost.

Just five years after its first E-Team grant, BullEx earns estimated annual sales of $7.3 million; its trainings and products are used by firefighters, universities, government agencies, hospitals, and other industries in 25 countries across six continents.

Read more: BullEx's profile on the NCIIA website 

http://www.bullexsafety.com