This project tasks a team of student interns with developing a dual-mode fire simulation and visualization system—one focused on structure fires inside buildings, and the other on wildfires across natural and semi-urban landscapes. The goal is to combine emerging rendering technologies and physically-informed simulation models to create visually compelling, data-driven, and computationally efficient representations of fire behavior in different environments.

For the structure fire module, students will simulate how fire and smoke propagate through a building using architectural geometry and material properties as key inputs. Fire behavior will be influenced by the location and type of fuels encountered (e.g., drywall, wood flooring, fabric furniture), airflow between rooms, and barriers like closed doors. Smoke and flame spread will be animated using efficient volumetric or particle methods, and enhanced with modern techniques such as Gaussian splatting or neural texture synthesis to achieve realistic effects suitable for mobile or AR deployment.

The wildfire module will focus on modeling fire progression across large-scale outdoor terrain. Students will incorporate available environmental data—such as terrain elevation, vegetation types, satellite fire perimeter observations, and weather forecasts (e.g., wind, humidity)—to simulate wildfire behavior over time. The team will integrate propagation models (either rule-based or data-driven) and visualize the output in a way that clearly communicates risk zones, direction of spread, and burn intensity. Rendering will be optimized to handle large areas while maintaining immersive quality, potentially leveraging AI models for dynamic smoke and fire visualization at scale.

Throughout the project, students will learn to combine physics-informed modeling, real-time graphics techniques, and AI-driven rendering to prototype tools that could support decision-making or situational awareness in firefighting, training, or public safety AR applications. They will work collaboratively to build, test, and document modular components, potentially using Unity or similar engines, and investigate performance trade-offs between visual realism and computational efficiency.

- A review and test of existing products and understanding of where they fall short with some interaction with project company

- A Unity project with a C# script that simulates realistic smoke effects in a 3D environment.

- The smoke simulation should be compatible with both Android and iOS platforms.

- Documentation detailing the algorithm or process used, including any preliminary processing steps.

- A demonstration video showcasing the smoke effect from various viewpoints within the 3D model.

- A user guide explaining how to start the smoke at a specific point and adjust its propagation speed.